http://www2.polskieradio.pl/eo/dokument.aspx?iid=67136
First Lady visits heroic Pole who saved hundreds of Jewish children
30.01.2007
Poland's First Lady, Maria Kaczyńska, paid a visit to Irena Sendler, 97 - a heroic Pole who saved the lives of over 2500 Jewish children during the Nazi Holocaust. Maria Kaczyńska presented Irena Sendler with a bouquet of roses and a silver jewelry box with amber.
Social worker Irena Sendlerowa, helped to rescue 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. The children were smuggled out of the ghetto and after being given counterfeit documents they were placed with Polish families, orphanages and convents. In 1943 the Nazi occupiers sentenced Irena Sendler to death but she was bought out by the resistance forces. In recognition of her efforts to save Jewish children Irena Sendler received "Righteous Among Nations" medal from the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel in 1965. In 1991 she also received an honorary citizenship of Israel. It was Lech Kaczyński who met last September with Israel's deputy prime minister Shimon Peres to discuss the initiative of granting the Nobel Peace prize to Irena Sendler. The forum of Polish Jews has already collected 15 thousand signatures under a petition to this effect. Signatures can be added at www.polskinobel.pl