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Irena Sendlerowa, a member of Zegota, an underground organization of Poles and Jews that coordinated efforts to save Jews in Nazi-occupied ...

Ona Simaite, Joop Westerweel, Irena Sendler

The history of the Holocaust is more than indifference, destruction, and loss. It is also about survival, resistance, and courage. In the face of cruelty and danger, some people refused to be bystanders and acted, often paying with their lives. They affirmed life and honored humanity. Three such examples are highlighted below.

 

Ona Simaite (1899–1970), Lithuania

Ona Simaite, a librarian at Vilna University, used her position to aid and rescue Jews in the Vilna ghetto. Entering the ghetto under the pretext of recovering library books from Jewish university students, she smuggled in food and other provisions and smuggled out literary and historical documents. In 1944, the Nazis arrested and tortured Simaite. She was then deported to Dachau and later transferred to a concentration camp in southern France. She remained in France following her liberation.

Lithuanian librarian Ona Simaite took food to Jews in the Vilna ghetto, helped hide many Jews outside the ghetto, and saved valuable ...
Lithuanian rescuer Ona Simaite

Lithuanian librarian Ona Simaite took food to Jews in the Vilna ghetto, helped hide many Jews outside the ghetto, and saved valuable Jewish literary and historical materials. Vilna, 1941.

  • Yad Vashem Photo Archives

Joop Westerweel (1899–1944), the Netherlands

A teacher in a progressive school, Joop Westerweel helped organize an escape route for young Jews fleeing the Netherlands during the German occupation. From December 1942 through 1944, his underground group smuggled between 150 and 200 Jews to Belgium, on to France, and from there into Switzerland and Spain. Captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in the Vught concentration camp, Westerweel was tortured but refused to reveal his network of contacts. He was executed on August 1, 1944.

Joop Westerweel, schoolteacher executed by the Nazis for helping Jews escape from the Netherlands.
Joop Westerweel

Joop Westerweel, schoolteacher executed by the Nazis for helping Jews escape from the Netherlands.

  • Beit Lohamei Haghettaot

Irena Sendler (1910–2008), Poland

As head of the children's section of Zegota, the Polish underground Council for Aid to Jews, social worker Irena Sendler (alias "Jolonta") helped smuggle several hundred Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto. Hiding them in orphanages, convents, schools, hospitals, and private homes, she provided each child with a new identity, carefully recording in code their original names and placements so that surviving relatives could find them after the war. Arrested by the Gestapo (German secret state police) in the fall of 1943, Sendler was sentenced to death. Zegota rescued her before execution. She assumed a new identity and continued her work for Zegota.

Irena Sendlerowa, a member of Zegota, an underground organization of Poles and Jews that coordinated efforts to save Jews in Nazi-occupied ...
Portrait of Żegota member Irena Sendler

Portrait of Irena Sendler in Warsaw, Poland, circa 1939.

Irena Sendler (1910–2008) was a member of the Council for Aid to Jews, codenamed “Żegota.” Żegota was a clandestine rescue organization of Poles and Jews in German-occupied Poland. Supported by the Polish government-in-exile, Żegota coordinated efforts to save Jews from Nazi persecution and murder. It operated from 1942 to 1945. 

Irena Sendler (Sendlerowa) was working as a social worker in Warsaw when World War II broke out in 1939. After the Nazis forced Warsaw’s Jews to move into the ghetto in the fall of 1940, Irena used her position and prewar network to supply food and offer financial assistance to Jews. By early 1943, Irena had joined Żegota. Żegota members secured hiding places for Polish Jews. They also delivered money, food, false identity documents, and medical assistance to those in their care.

Under the alias “Jolanta,” Irena helped smuggle several hundred Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto. She found hiding places for them in orphanages, convents, schools, hospitals, and private homes. Irena provided each child with a new identity. She carefully recorded their original names and placements in code so that relatives could find them after the war. In the fall of 1943, Irena was appointed head of Żegota’s children's section. Only a few days later, she was arrested by the Gestapo (German secret state police). The Gestapo brutally beat and tortured her. Nonetheless, Irena never revealed the names of the children or her colleagues. She was later released from the Gestapo prison thanks to a bribe organized by her fellow rescuers. Despite the dangers, Irena continued working with Żegota under a new alias. 

Irena Sendler survived the war. In 1965, Yad Vashem recognized her as “Righteous Among the Nations.”

  • Yad Vashem Photo Archives

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • What risks, pressures, and motivations confronted rescuers during the Holocaust?

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