Irena Sendler’s 100th Birthday Celebrated with the Polish Premiere of Mary Skinner’s Film In the Name of Their Mothers

22 February 2010

Irena Sendler’s 100th Birthday Celebrated with the Polish Premiere of Mary Skinner’s film In the Name of Their Mothers

On February 15, the Embassy joined the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the City of Warsaw and B2 Productions in celebrating the 100th birthday of Irena Sendler.  The event featured the Polish premiere of In the Name of Their Mothers, a documentary by American filmmaker Mary Skinner, who is the daughter of a World War II war orphan from Warsaw.  This event and Ms. Skinner's film paid a stirring and heartfelt tribute to Irena Sendler and other activitists who organized a dangerous and courageous underground movement – composed mostly of Polish women – that rescued 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, helping them to survive World War II by placing them with Polish families. 

Ambassador Lee Feinstein said in his remarks at the event "the heroism of Irena Sendler and other Righteous Among Nations in the face of utmost darkness, depravity, and evil calls each of us to a higher purpose.  They stand as symbols of moral courage, tolerance, and the ability of ordinary people to stand up to tyranny – even though their own lives were at stake.”  

In addition to the Ambassador, among those expressing their admiration and appreciation to Irena Sendler and the Righteous Among Nations were Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of the Polish Republic; Ewa Wierzynska, Deputy Director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Bieta Ficowska, a Holocaust survivor who was saved by Irena Sendler; Wanda Urbanska, host of the PBS television show Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska; Polish actors Krzysztof Kolberger and Małgorzata Zajączkowska; and Mary Skinner, whose compelling film about Irena Sendler left very few dry eyes in the audience.

Irena Sendler has become a hero not only in Poland and Israel, but also in the United States.  Americans are learning more about her life because of the play Life in a Jar, which was created in 1999 by high school children in Uniontown, Kansas, and performed hundreds of times in the U.S. and Poland.  Likewise, the 2009 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler has also brought Irena Sendler’s story to a broader audience in the U.S. and internationally.