Irena Sendler Statue Unveiled

IRENA SENDLER STATUE OFFICIALLY UNVEILED IN NEWARK

POLISH humanitarian hero Irena Sendler

had her statue officially unveiled at Newark’s Fountain Gardens on London Road after a small COVID-secure ceremony on Saturday 26 June 2021.

Although few people in the UK have heard of Irena, her story is one of monumental importance and one that Newark and Sherwood District Council, Newark Town Council and the Polish Cultural Institute in London want to share widely to ensure that her life becomes a legacy that will never be forgotten. During World War II Irena Sendler worked at the Department for Social Welfare and Public Health of the City of Warsaw, Germanoccupied Poland. During her time there she worked tirelessly to help protect and rescue many Jewish children and their families. She was part of a network of workers and volunteers from that department, mostly women, who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. She would provide them with false identity documents and shelter them with willing Polish families or in orphanages and other care facilities, including Catholic nun convents, saving those children from the Holocaust.

The German occupiers suspected Irena's involvement in this Polish

Underground movement and in

October 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo. However, she managed to hide the list of the names and locations of all the rescued Jewish children, thus preventing this information

Reverend Canon Michael ODonoghue Dean of Sherwood and Parish Priest of Newark at the Polish war graves

Air Chief Marshal Rtd Sir Andrew Pulford (right) and Polish Ambassador HE Arkady Rzegocki (left) at the Polish war graves

from falling into the hands of the Gestapo. Withstanding torture and imprisonment, Irena never revealed anything about her work or the location of all the rescued children nor where she had hidden a list with their contact addresses on. She was sentenced to death but narrowly escaped on the day of her scheduled execution as the guards escorting her were bribed.

The following day the Germans loudly proclaimed her execution was successful. Posters were put up all over the city with the news that she was shot. Irena read the posters herself. During the remaining years of the war, Irena lived hidden, just like the children she rescued. Irena was the only one who knew where the list of rescued children was hidden. When the war was finally over, she dug up the jar where the names had been hidden in and began the job of finding the children and trying to find a living parent. It is estimated that Irena, who passed away in May 2008, saved many hundreds of Jewish children. Unfortunately, almost all the parents of the children Irena saved died at the Treblinka death camp. After the war, Irena Sendler continued to provide help to the most needy in her community—she organised orphanages for children, cofounded nursing homes and social welfare facilities.

Among the many decorations Irena received were the Gold Cross of Merit, granted in 1946 for the saving of Jews, and the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour, awarded later in Irena's life for her wartime humanitarian efforts. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations. This is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. Newark and Sherwood District Council Leader, Councillor David Lloyd opened the event celebrating the achievements of Irena detailing how her actions saved the lives of many. The statue was then unveiled to the small number of socially distanced attendees by Air Chief Marshal Rt’d Sir Andrew Pulford, Deputy Lord Lieutenant and HE Arkady Rzegocki ,Polish Ambassador.

Reverend Canon Michael O’Donoghue, Dean of Sherwood and Parish Priest of Newark blessed the statue shortly after. Sculptor Andrew Lilley went on to share a few words on the remarkable journey he went on in creating the statue commenting that “he hoped Irena’s story would be remembered for generations to come”.

The statue has been largely funded by the Institute of Polish Remembrance and following its unveiling wreaths were laid at Polish War graves in Newark Cemetery on London Road in a mark of respect to all those who lost their lives during conflict.