Irena's Children

by Tilar J. Mazzeo

  Once again I owe warm thanks to my literary agent, Stacey Glick, who makes all things possible; to my fabulous film agent, Lou Pitt; and to my editor at Gallery Books, Karen Kosztolnyik, whose vision has made this book possible. I’d also like to thank from Gallery Books: Louise Burke, Jennifer Bergstrom, Wendy Sheanin, Jennifer Long, Jennifer Robinson, Liz Psaltis, John Vairo, and Becky Prager for their incredible support.

  And last but certainly not least, I offer my deepest gratitude to my husband, Robert Miles, to whom this book is principally dedicated. The quote with which this book begins is from Shakespeare’s King Lear, a drama—like the story of Irena Sendler—at its heart about that which we gain and that which we lose and precarious ripeness that is living in the midst of dying. It is a rare man who can balance out the darkness of the long days that I have spent reading and writing about death and the persecution of children with the radiant brightness of love and family, and it is my great fortune to share my life with a husband who is the best of them.

  This book was supported by the generosity of Colby College and the Clara C. Piper named professorship, which it is my privilege to hold as a faculty member, and I have been aided in the research for this project by the staff at institutions including, in Warsaw, the Jewish Historical Institute, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and the Institute of National Remembrance; in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem; in Canada, the University of British Columbia libraries; and in the United States, the New York Public Library.

  Cast of Characters

  IRENA’S NETWORK

  Irena’s Radlińska Circle

  These people were former students of Dr. Helena Radlińska, students in the professor’s department at the Polish Free University in the 1930s, or faculty in social welfare departments in Warsaw. They were all part of Irena’s network of collaborators.

  Dr. Helena Radlińska, the celebrated Jewish-born professor at the Polish Free University, was an innovator in the field of social work and welfare services in Poland. She inspired intense loyalty in her students, many of whom were women, and when the war began mobilized resistance cells for the underground—perhaps even Irena’s.

  Ala Gołąb-Grynberg, Jewish, was the chief nurse in the Warsaw ghetto and a wartime heroine of the first order; her husband, Arek Grynberg, was an operative in the Jewish resistance; her cousin by marriage, Wiera Gran, was rumored to be a traitor to the Jewish people. She and Nachum Remba rescued hundreds from deportation to Treblinka in the summer of 1942, earning her the title of the “Good Fairy of the Umschlagplatz” among grateful families. Ala also worked closely with Jan Dobraczyński, Helena Szeszko, and Władysława Marynowska at the Father Boduen children’s home and collaborated directly with Irena and Adam on smuggling Jewish children to safety. Sent to the labor camp at Poniatowa after the ghetto uprising, Ala kept fighting: she was part of a network, aided by Żegota, planning a mass prison break and uprising.

  Ewa Rechtman, one of Irena’s closest friends from the Polish Free University, worked with orphans in the ghetto and ran the youth circle on Sienna Street. During the deportations of 1942, Irena and her network mounted a desperate effort to save Ewa.

  Dr. Janusz Korczak, a lecturer at the Polish Free University and a civic leader in social work and children’s education in prewar Warsaw, ran an orphanage in the ghetto where Irena was a welcome guest and frequent visitor; the “old doctor” perished at Treblinka with nearly two hundred Jewish children—including most of the thirty-two children that Jan Dobraczyński had returned, against Irena’s wishes, to the ghetto.

  Zofia Wędrychowska, a public librarian, left-wing radical, and unmarried mother of four, was a former student of Dr. Radlińska and, with her life partner and children’s father, Stanisław Papuziński, was a key player in one of the professor’s cells in the resistance. Their home hid several of “Irena’s children,” placing the family in constant danger.

  Irena “Irka” Schultz, a senior colleague in the welfare offices and one of Dr. Radlińska’s prize former students, was one of the original conspirators in Irena’s network and helped to save the lives of dozens of Jewish children; no one, it was said, was better at smuggling children out of the ghetto than Irena Schultz.

  Józef Zysman, a Jewish pro bono attorney for Dr. Radlińska and an early friend of Irena’s. Józef was trapped in the ghetto with his wife, Theodora, and their young son, Piotr Zysman. From inside the ghetto, Józef and Irena conspired together at secret meetings of the resistance.

  Izabela Kuczkowska, one of Irena’s old friends from the Polish Free University and part of a cell run by Dr. Helena Radlińska during the occupation, worked directly with Zofia Wędrychowska, Stanisław Papuziński, and, ultimately, Irena to save the lives of dozens of Jewish children and to support the Polish resistance.

  Rachela Rosenthal, Jewish and trained as a teacher at the Polish Free University, was trapped in the ghetto with her husband and small daughter. When she alone survived the summer of 1942, Rachela became “Karolina”—one of the great women warriors of the Warsaw uprising and the lover of a Polish resistance fighter.

  Maria Kukulska was a schoolteacher and activist who was part of the social welfare networks in Warsaw tied to the Polish Free University. A trusted member of Irena’s network and skilled at giving Jewish children “makeovers,” she hid Adam Celnikier and a Jewish doctor in her apartment safe house after their escapes from the ghetto.

  Jaga Piotrowska, a social worker, colleague of Irena’s, and a former student at the Polish Free University, risked her life and the life of her family to hide more than fifty Jewish people during the occupation. Jaga was one of the original conspirators in Irena’s network and one of Irena’s bravest liaisons; but as a devout Catholic like Jan Dobraczyński, Jaga’s faith ultimately led to conflict with the Jewish community despite her unquestioned valor.

  Dr. Witwicki, a psychologist and one of the professors close to Dr. Helena Radlińska’s circle, wisely fled into hiding when the occupation started. Irena brought him secret support funds from his old friends, and in return he gave her gifts for the ghetto children: Jewish dolls that he spent his days in hiding sculpting.

  Dr. Ludwik Hirszfeld, an infectious disease specialist and the cousin of Dr. Helena Radlińska, worked closely with Ala Gołąb-Grynberg in the ghetto teaching clandestine medical classes to stop the epidemics.

  Jadwiga Deneka, trained as a teacher at the Polish Free University, was one of the original members of Irena’s network, responsible with her brother, Tadeusz, for saving the lives of numerous Jewish families and their children. Captured by the Gestapo in 1943, she was executed in the ruins of the ghetto.

  Jadwiga Jędrzejowska was another of Irena’s friends from their days at the Polish Free University. Irena reencountered Jadwiga inside Pawiak Prison, where Jadwiga was part of the resistance that helped to save Irena.

  Social Welfare Colleagues and the Father Boduen Team

  These people were Irena’s colleagues, coworkers, and conspirators in the Warsaw municipal social services.

  Janka Grabowska, a fellow social worker and an underground liaison for Irena’s network, was with Irena on the morning that Irena was arrested by the Gestapo. On the table were the lists with the names and addresses of dozens of Jewish children. Janka’s quick thinking and her generous brassiere proved a salvation.

  Jan Dobraczyński, a senior administrator in the Warsaw social services, was a member of a far-right political party and an ardent Catholic; despite his prewar anti-Semitism, Jan ultimately joined Irena’s network to save Jewish children. His zeal for baptizing Jewish children, however, placed him, along with his close conspirator Jaga Piotrowska in conflict with the Jewish community.

  Władysława Marynowska, the housemother and a social worker at the Father Boduen children’s home in Warsaw, joined Irena’s network as the deportations accelerated, and bravely hid children in her apartment. She worked closely with Helena Szeszko, Jan Dobraczyński, and Ala Gołąb-Grynberg.

  Dr. Henryk and Mari
a Palester, he a Catholic-born convert to Judaism: when the doctor was banned from his position in the health ministry, Irena supported the family’s decision to stay on the Aryan side in open hiding and found Maria the job in the social welfare offices that she needed to support her family. Daughter Małgorzata Palester played a heroic role in the rescue of Irena from Pawiak Prison and survived the war, and the family’s teenage son, Kryštof Palester, was part of an underground assassination cell in the resistance called “Parasol,” which famously fought in the Warsaw uprising. Irena and Adam stayed with the Palester family and fought together throughout that last battle for survival in Warsaw.

  Żegota, the Resistance, and the Medical Underground

  These people joined Irena and her network from other branches of the resistance in Warsaw.

  Dr. Anna Sipowicz, the dentist in the prison underground at Pawiak, helped Irena smuggle messages back and forth with Żegota.

  Dr. Adolf Berman, a Jewish psychologist and one of the leaders of Żegota; after the war, Irena returned the lists of saved Jewish children to him as the leader of the Jewish community.

  Stanisława Bussold was the middle-aged midwife and nurse whose apartment was one of Irena’s emergency shelters for children smuggled from the ghetto, including the baby Elżbieta Koppel.

  Stefania Wichlińska, one of Irena’s colleagues in the social-welfare offices, was the underground liaison for Żegota’s cofounder and the agent responsible for bringing Irena to Żegota; she was murdered by the Gestapo before the war ended. After her escape from Pawiak, Stefania’s widower husband helped hide Irena from the Gestapo in the first weeks after her escape from the firing squad.

  Julian Grobelny, one of the leaders of Żegota: despite suffering from debilitating tuberculosis, Julian and his wife, Halina Grobelny, together walked numerous Jewish children out of the ghetto long before joining forces with the indomitable Irena.

  Marek Edelman, a young Jewish man who became one of the joint leaders of the ZOB, the Jewish fighting organization that led the ghetto uprising: Marek worked alongside Ala Gołąb-Grynberg and Nachum Remba at the Umschlagplatz in their furious trackside rescue mission.

  Dr. Juliusz Majkowski, part of the medical underground in Warsaw and a conspirator with Dr. Radlińska, gave Irena and her first collaborators epidemic-control passes that allowed them in and out of the ghetto.

  Basia Dietrich, one of Irena’s neighbors in the apartment complex in Wola district, also ran an operation to save Jewish children. Arrested with Irena and sent to Pawiak, the women shared a cell until that final morning.

  Dr. Leon Feiner, one of the Jewish leaders of Żegota, recruited Irena into a secret ghetto mission during the famous ghetto visit of Jan Karski.

  Jan Karski, a secret agent of the Polish underground, toured the ghetto in the summer of 1942 and tried to tell the world about the genocide happening in Poland; Irena was one of the signposts on his tour of the ghetto.

  Helena Szeszko, a Polish nurse in the medical underground, helped save children from the Warsaw ghetto as part of Irena’s network; she and her husband, Leon, were both senior operatives as well in the Polish resistance, responsible for forging identity papers.

  Jerzy Korczak, wartime name “Jurek,” was one of the two Jewish teenagers living on the Aryan side who became part of the household at Maria Kukulska’s apartment and witnessed the intimate life and work of Irena and Adam.

  Yoram Gross, wartime name “Jerzy,” was one of the two Jewish teenagers living on the Aryan side who became part of the household at Maria Kukulska’s apartment and witnessed the intimate life and work of Irena and Adam.

  Irena’s Family

  Irena Sendler, “the female Schindler,” who organized across Warsaw an astonishing network of former classmates and coworkers, saved the lives of thousands of Jewish children and created one of the most important underground cells anywhere in occupied Europe.

  Adam Celnikier, Irena’s Jewish boyfriend from their days at the University of Warsaw and later Irena’s second husband, fled the ghetto with new identity papers in the name of Stefan Zgrembski and survived the war by hiding in the apartment of Irena’s friend Maria Kukulska. From his hiding place Adam aided Irena in her activities for Żegota.

  Dr. Stanisław Krzyżanowski and Janina Krzyżanowska: the early death of Irena’s father, a passionate activist, set firmly Irena’s moral compass; the fate of her ailing mother during the occupation was one of Irena’s greatest wartime worries.

  Mieczysław Sendler, “Mietek,” was Irena’s first husband, whom she divorced after the war in order to marry Adam Celnikier.

  Ghetto Encounters

  These were people Irena and her network met inside the ghetto—one of them was a Gestapo collaborator but most of them were rescued Jewish adults or children.

  Chaja Estera Stein, a Jewish girl saved by the collaboration of Julian Grobelny, a kind but unnamed parish priest, and Irena. After the war, under the new Polish name “Teresa,” she lived with Irena and Adam Celnikier as a foster daughter.

  Wiera Gran, the stage name of the sultry Jewish cabaret singer Weronika Grynberg, the cousin of Ala Gołąb-Grynberg’s husband, Arek. Wiera’s alleged collaboration with the Gestapo and betrayal of the Jewish people earned her a secret death sentence from the resistance and the eternal enmity of the Żegota leadership and Irena.

  Jonas Turkow was a Jewish actor and a friend of Ala Gołąb-Grynberg and Irena. Ala saved Jonas at the last possible moment from deportation to Treblinka.

  Nachum Remba, a clerk at the Judenrat who, along with Ala Gołąb-Grynberg, became one of the heroes of the Umschlagplatz, where, by brazenly playing a Jewish doctor, he saved hundreds from deaths at Treblinka.

  Henia and Josel Koppel were Jewish parents who gave their infant daughter, Elżbieta Koppel—baby “Bieta”—to Irena in the last days before the deportations to Treblinka.

  Regina Mikelberg, a former university classmate of Irena Sendler, Adam Celnikier, and Janka Grabowska, Janka and Irena saved Regina and her sister from the ghetto, where the Mikelberg family lived cheek by jowl with members of the Celnikier clan.

  Katarzyna Meloch was a Jewish girl saved from the ghetto and the death camps by Irena’s network; Ala Gołąb-Grynberg led her out to safety; Jadwiga Deneka cared for her after.

  Michał Głowiński was one of the Jewish children saved, along with his mother, by Irena’s network.

  Halina Złotnicka was one of the Jewish children saved by Irena’s network. Halina lived for much of the occupation in the home of Jaga Piotrowska, who treated her as a second daughter.

  Gallery Books Reading Group Guide

  Irena's Children

  By Tilar J. Mazzeo

  This readers group guide for Irena’s Children includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Tilar J. Mazzeo. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

  Introduction

  When German forces occupying Poland during World War II begin isolating and eradicating the Jewish population of Warsaw under Hitler’s orders, Irena Sendler, a young social worker, courageously devotes herself to saving as many people as she can. Inspired by the life and work of her professor and mentor, Dr. Helena Radlińska, Sendler collaborates with fellow students, friends, her forbidden Jewish lover Adam, and countless others to deliver children of all ages from the hell of the Warsaw ghetto to hidden safe spots elsewhere in the city. The heroes in her network risk their lives daily—and many lose their lives—in order to save more than 2,500 children and countless adults who would otherwise be sent to their deaths at the hands of the Nazis. With a healthcare pass, Sendler travels in and out of the ghetto herself, making secret deliveries of food and medicine and smuggling out babies and children whose desperate parents beg her to take them. Although the discovery of any record-k
eeping would mean death for Sendler, she writes the names of the children she rescues on small slips of paper and guards the lists with her life in the hope that their true identities will not be lost and that reunification with their families will be possible some time in the future. As the death toll in Warsaw climbs and German soldiers begin looking for the resistance leader known as “Jolanta,” the risk of what Sendler stands to lose grows ever greater. Yet, confronted with what seem to be insurmountable obstacles, she continues on with unwavering and awe-inspiring determination and fortitude in a brave mission of hope that will affect entire generations to come.