Irena's Children

Archival Summary & Scope

From the *New York Times* bestselling author of *The Widow Clicquot* comes the extraordinary story of Irena Sendler, the “female Oskar Schindler.”

In Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, social worker Irena Sendler risked her life to save 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Granted access as a public health specialist in 1942, Sendler understood the desperate fate awaiting the children. Through ingenious and perilous methods—including smuggling them through sewers, in coffins, and via hidden passages—and with the help of a brave network, she spirited them to safety.

Astonishingly, Sendler meticulously documented the true identities of these children on secret lists, buried in bottles, in the hope of post-war reunion, despite immense personal risk. Tragically, over ninety percent of their families would perish.

*Irena’s Children* is a gripping and heroic account of survival, resilience, and compassion in the face of unspeakable inhumanity.