Dead Celebrity Alert

She smuggled out the children in suitcases, ambulances, coffins, sewer pipes, rucksacks and, on one occasion, even a tool box.

Those old enough to ask knew their saviour only by her codename “Jolanta”.

But she kept hidden a meticulous record of all their real names and new identities — created to protect the Jewish youngsters from the pursuing Nazis — so they might later be re-united with their families.

By any measure, Irena Sendler was one of the most remarkable and noble figures to have emerged from the horrors of World War II. But, until recently, her extraordinary compassion and heroism went largely unrecorded.

When the Germans finally caught her, the Roman Catholic social worker had managed to save 2,500 Jewish babies and toddlers from deportation to the concentration camps. …

She was beaten, tortured and sentenced to death by the Gestapo — who even announced her execution. But Irena survived, her spirit unbroken, her secrets untold. … Read full obituary

Filed under Ones of a Kind, War & Peace