by Mayer
The Irena Sendler story tells the true story of a Polish
social worker who during WWII rescued 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw
ghetto. Her story is brought to life by
Liz, Megen and Sabrina, three high school girls in a small impoverished
southeastern Kansas farming community where many people live hand to
mouth. Liz who starts the project along
with her teacher, Mr. Conner brings the story to life for a history project
after reading a one-line reference to Irena’s war time work and courage. After researching her life thoroughly, the
girls create a play with props fabricated in the school’s shop class to tell
her story. The holocaust play is
inspirational leading to out of town performances and several trips to Poland
financed by philanthropic people mostly affiliated with Jewish organizations
throughout Kansas and the U.S. There are
even some international dates. The success of the play leads to college
scholarships for the original three girls something they could only have hoped
for before. Each girl has her own family
issues and tragedies which play out against this backdrop. My only criticism of the book was that it was
overly sentimental. There were too many
professions of love between Irena and her young biographers. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this holocaust
era true story of which I knew nothing before.
This book makes Poland’s recent passage of a law criminalizing any
aspersions against the Polish Christian
community for its collusion with the Nazis in the German persecution and murder
of its Jewish citizens. One of my
friends who survived the holocaust best described Poland’s attitude toward its
Jews this way: The Germans killed the
Jews. The Poles enjoyed it.
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