Early Life and Anti-Semitism Opposition

• Born 1910 to Catholic parents in predominantly Jewish town
• Father treated poor Jewish patients refused by other doctors
• University of Warsaw social welfare graduate student
  • Publicly denounced classroom segregation
  • Defaced non-Jewish identity card
  • Earned suspension and troublemaking reputation
• Socialist ideals drove assistance to vulnerable Jewish families across Warsaw

Nazi Invasion and Warsaw Ghetto Formation

• September 1939: Nazi Germany invaded Poland
• 1940: Hitler forced hundreds of thousands Warsaw Jews into 1+ square mile area
• Ghetto characteristics:
  • High walls with constant surveillance
  • Families became starving and sick
• Sendler secured passes under typhus outbreak inspection pretense
• Initial work: smuggled resources with Polish officials and medical underground help

Rescue Operation Development

• Parents began sending children through sewers and over walls
• Sendler developed coordinated rescue campaign with associates
• Smuggling methods:
  • Bundled in dirty laundry
  • Packed in boxes on cargo trains
  • Carried in coffins, toolboxes, briefcases
  • Bigger children escaped through courthouse and church straddling boundaries
• Process: ferry to safe houses → forge new documents → send to orphanages, convents, foster families
• Record keeping: painstaking records on thin cigarette paper stored in glass jars
  • Retained Jewish identities and tracked every child
  • Work punishable by death

Zegota Partnership and Expansion

• 1942: Nazis began transporting Jews to concentration camps
• Joined Nazi resistance group Zegota
• Zegota assistance:
  • Stashed money in post boxes across Warsaw
  • Helped expand operation scope

Arrest and Imprisonment

• October 20, 3am: Gestapo arrested Sendler
  • Laundry owner threatened, gave Sendler's name from Zegota post box
• Janina Grabowska received glass jar with 2,000+ Jewish children names
• Charges: aiding Jews throughout country
• Endured months physical and psychological torture
• Betrayed no information
• January 20, 1944: sentenced to execution

Rescue and Continued Work

• German officer diverted execution course
• Zegota paid modern equivalent $100,000+ for release
• Listened to bullhorns proclaiming her death that night
• Remained in hiding, continued overseeing Zegota rescue missions until 1945

Post-War Legacy

• Reconnected with rescued children after war
• Maintained contact with many for rest of life
• Polish government sought to suppress story
• Rescued children ensured recognition for her work
• Personal reflection: "I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little"