First published 2017
Tilar J. Mazzeo chronicles the extraordinary wartime mission of Irena Sendler, a young Polish social worker who gained access to the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 as a public health specialist. Once inside the walled district, Sendler went door to door convincing Jewish families to entrust her with their children. She built a network of local tradesmen, ghetto residents, and resistance fighters to help smuggle thousands of children to safety. Her rescue methods included dangerous journeys through city sewers, hiding children in coffins, sneaking them past checkpoints under coats, and leading them through secret passages in abandoned buildings. Sendler took an even greater risk by maintaining secret lists of the children's real names and identities, burying them in bottles beneath an apple tree in a friend's garden. She hoped families could reunite after the war, not knowing that over ninety percent would perish. Mazzeo reveals how one woman's courage and moral conviction saved thousands of lives during the Holocaust.
Genres: holocaust, biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, moral-conviction
Setting: Poland, Warsaw, Warsaw Ghetto
Period: World War II
360 pages · Paperback · Aguilar
Content warnings: child-death, death, violence