Monday, April 06, 2009

My Kind of Mom

I got an e-mail forward from my friend Trisha this morning.
I felt it really worth sharing.

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ' ulterior motive ' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.)

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids.) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi ' s broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents tha t may have survived it and reunited the family. Most of course had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected.

* Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

11 comments:

The P*dunc's said...

I need to focus on everything but the last sentence to keep my heart warm.

That last sentence makes my blood boil for some reason.

Lori said...

Great story Alice. Especially appreciate the verifying links.

Lindsey Rose said...

Wow, we know where she will end up right! She was amazing!

The Dreamer said...

Of all people AL GORE...Lord help us! If he were any type of man...he would have refused it and given it to the one that fully deserved it.

Renee said...

Oh my goodness, what a lady! Bummer about the award. Obviously she deserved to win, but it doesn't really matter when you look at the big picture. I'm sure she will get all that she deserves and more!

Thanks for sharing this story!

Marla said...

Wow. That is a story. She was amazing!

tiki_lady said...

AMAZING! I loved that story. pth, spit in Al gore's direction.

Rachael said...

My first reaction is: "that's terrible!!" And then I have to stop and wonder what's wrong with me! She didn't do it for the Nobel Peace Prize. She did it because it was right and she had love in her heart. Those things can't be taken from her, no matter how many awards she doesn't win. There's a lot to take home in that story!

Katina Angola said...

That's amazing!

Donna said...

Leave it to the kool-aid drinkers to screw something up.

jordan said...

I don't worry about it too much. They give those awards out to anyone, obviously. Ida doesn't need any award to tell her that she is a much better person than Al Gore, or anyone else out there in Washington.