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The Female 'Schindler'
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In CBS' The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, Anna Paquin brilliantly portrays an unsung Catholic Pole who saved Jews during World War II. Kati Marton, author of The Great Escape and Wallenberg, on why the movie is a must-see.
Sixty-four years later, the Holocaust still disgorges astonishing stories of treachery and man’s capacity for evil. We especially need these stories now, as there are ever fewer survivors left, eyewitness accounts yielding to the historians’ more detached version of events. For successive generations to grasp the enormity of the mass murder of millions in the heart of Europe, we need to hear the survivors’ memories. This Sunday, with The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, CBS presents such a story.
Watch the Trailer of The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
It's a deeply moving drama based on the little-known true story of Sendler, who is credited with rescuing 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. We are accustomed to books and films about violent Polish anti-Semitism, but The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler portrays a local Catholic who risked her life to save Jewish children.
Anna Paquin, a fine, subtle actress, whom we first met as a child in The Piano (which she won an Oscar for at age 11), is convincing as Irena, giving her the right touch of stubborn determination without robbing her of her human substance. A nurse/social worker employed by the city of Warsaw, Irena knows she cannot rely on goodness alone if she is to outsmart her chief enemy, the Gestapo. In the race to snatch children from the tightening noose around the Warsaw ghetto, she must use all her wiles. So she teaches Jewish kids not only to make the sign of the cross, but also to “lie with more conviction” to save themselves. To Irena falls the cruel challenge of persuading parents to part from their children. When one mother tells her to come back tomorrow, as her child is not yet ready, we sense that tomorrow will be too late.
In the vast sea of “reality” TV, this exceptional program deserves to be seen by a large audience. As much as Schindler’s List is an attempt to grapple with the unfathomable mystery of man’s capacity for evil, this film is about the equally mysterious human capacity for goodness. “There must be other Poles who wish to help the Jews,” Irena says hopefully to a Catholic priest. “Its possible,” the Monsignor answers, without much conviction. We are constantly reminded that the majority of Poles did nothing to thwart the genocide. The mystery behind what motivates people like Irena Sendler remains unanswered.
Irena Sendler lived to the ripe age of 95, and we see and hear her at the end of the film, a warm and spirited woman with seemingly no regrets. She lived a full life and gave many others a chance to do so, as well, an extraordinary figure from an era with a tragic shortage of heroes. Heroism is not simply enduring when you have no choice, as a prisoner does—that is courage. Heroism is when you have a choice, and you embrace danger for the sake of others. That is what Irena Sendler did.
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Kati Marton is an author and journalist who has reported for ABC News, National Public Radio as well as a number of print outlets. She received several honors for her reporting, including the George Foster Peabody Award. Her latest book is The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World.
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Kati Marton is an author and journalist who has reported for ABC News, National Public Radio as well as a number of print outlets. She received several honors for her reporting, including the George Foster Peabody Award. Her latest book is The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World.
Chuckv
Irena Sendler is someone who deserves to be known and I thank The Daily Beast for bringing her to my attention. But why does the headline have to say that she saved more lives than Schindler as if it was a sporting competition? They both did the best they could. That is all that matters.
katlia
Those moved by this story may want to check out a book called The Zoo Keeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. It's the (true) story of the director & wife of the Warsaw Zoo, who during WW2 were deeply involved in the underground and who used the Zoo and its grounds to hide many Jews. Ackerman gives some interesting statistics to show what huge numbers of Poles in the Warsaw area were directly and indirectly involved in the effort to save Jews: to save just one person a near dozen may have been involved to offer hiding places, produce false papers, provide transportation & food. Polish antisemitism is a fact; Polish heroism during the war should also be a fact equally acknowledged.
DevilsLawyer
How true. Even a single individual is a mixed bag; a whole country of people, infathomably more so.
Marekt
Irena Sendler was just one of many Poles who helped Jews during WW II despite the fact that if you did so, you, along with your whole family, could be killed by Germans or send to concentration camp. With this CBS film, this basic truth and a historical fact known to all who lived in Poland at that time, for so many years not acknowledged in US, is finally coming out.
Irena Sendler was one of over 6 thousand Poles who have received the titles of Righteous Among the Nations. It's an award from the state of Israel to people from all over the world who saved Jews during WW II.
HerrRust
It is always great to see her work recognized, even though she is no longer among us.
This woman had the chance of being recognized with a Noble Prize Award, but she lost the prize. Al Gore was the winner. A man that "fought" for the environmental cause. Well, I am not really sure if he was the right man to beat Irena! I guess he has no idea of what a REAL fight is.
She had a second chance of being recognized. On the pages of the Times magazine, December last year, they portraited an issue about the most important ones who passed away in the year of 2008, and again, they forgot Irena! But they didn�t forget about J�rg Haider, the populist RIGHT WING Austrian politician. Wel...
But this is what makes her so unique, the fact that she did it from the heart, not expecting A SINGLE word of gratitude. The prize was to see more than 2000 jewish kids safe. And more than that, she gave than not just the opportunity of keep living, she also saved their jewish background, and even their jewish names! She wanted to make sure that one day they will know who they actually were.
Thank CBS for the attitude and The Daily Beast for sharing her story!
Thank you, Irena! Wherever you may be!
Mixpixlix
I wonder how much the fact that Sendler is a woman played into the fact she's received far less notice than a man doing similar acts would receive?
There is no doubt that she and thousands of others tried to help, often at great peril to themselves and their families. Blessed be their memories. But the fact remians that MILLIONS were complicit in the murder of people who did them no harm and for the most part they didn't know.
And, while most of the world swore NEVER AGAIN, it happens over and over again. Which is why Sendler's story and similar ones need to be brought out into the open and made public. One person CAN make a difference. Just think if each of the 2,500 children she saved had a child that's 5,000 lives saved and if those children had children the numbers start to multiply geometrically. Somewhere in the Talmud it says to save a life is to save the world. Irena did.
penscott
Quiz: how many non-Jewish Poles were killed by the Germans and Russians? (Don't forget Russia invaded from the east a few weeks after Germany invaded from the West.)
Answer: three million.
alessa
"We are constantly reminded that the majority of Poles did nothing to thwart the genocide."
The reviewer obviously missed the message of the movie. We are not constantly reminded that 'all Poles except Irena are evil' instead we are constantly reminded that the majority of Poles are good people and that is what Irena says in the movie, over and over again: 'Outside these walls there are Poles who are prepared to risk their lives to save your children'.
Monsignor didn't believe her, the Jewish Council didn't believe her, even Korczak doubted her. And yet this movie is not about them. They were unable to save anyone. Just as they expected, they were unable to find even a single righteous person. It was Irena, not them, who saved the lives of 2500 children. She didn't hide them in her pocket, she saved them by finding at least 2500 Righteous people in Warsaw alone. It was her belief in human goodness that encouraged Poles to risk the lives of their entire families for Jewish children.
Those who doubted Irena were proven wrong. THAT is the message of the movie and, according to the director John Kent Harrison, that is the reason why this movie was made in the first place. It's a pity that some people are too deeply absorbed in stereotypes and prejudice to notice this.
But then again this comes from a person who changed the title of her book when it was released in Hungary, claiming that there is no Hungarian who would buy a book with the word 'Jew' in the title, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.
Thank you.
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