Picture books are some of the most important books in the world. They offer our children insights into the past, the present, the future, and what might be. They show them that anything is possible, and offer scaffolding through picture support. Pictures books are not just for little kids, but can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, and even adults. I recently read Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto, by Susan Goldman Rubin, and when I finished, all I could think was how important it is that this story exists in a picture book.
As an
undergraduate, I was a double major in history and religious studies. I took a class solely devoted to Germany
after 1918, a class all about The Holocaust, and many other classes that
touched upon World War II. Never, in any
of those classes, did I hear about Irena Sendler. It was not until I read this picture book
that I learned of this fascinating woman.
It took me aback, knowing that someone who was well-educated in this time
had never heard of this woman, and it filled me with promise, knowing that this
book now exists to share her story with our children for years to come.
The
story starts, not with the birth of our main character, as so many biographies
do, but with the invasion of Poland.
Irena Sendler was a Catholic social worker who, from the beginning, resisted
the Nazis. The Warsaw ghetto was a place
of horrific starvation, disease, and death.
Irena and other nurses were allowed into the ghetto to help with the
spread of typhus. When news came that
the Nazis were planning on transporting the ghetto’s occupants to Treblinka, a
death camp, Irena and others knew they had to act.
Most of
Irena’s story is something that I am familiar with—that of hiding Jewish
children with nuns and other non-Jewish peoples. I knew of hidden Jewish children, but could
not ever tell you the name of any of the people who helped to save them, until
I read this story. I remember in college
hearing the story of the hidden Jewish child.
Jewish parents knew that if their children stayed with them, they would
most likely die. Being selfless, parents
handed their children over to stay with someone else for the duration of the
war. Irena and other brave individuals
helped children to escape through sewers, under floorboards in ambulances, in
fire trucks, body bags, coffins, or any other means of getting those children
out of the ghetto and to safety. Irena
was even able to smuggle a baby, Elzbieta Ficowska, out in a carpenter’s wooden
box.
Many children had to be hidden,
moved, and hidden again and again. There
are stories of children who, after the war, could not return to their homes and
families because they couldn’t even remember who they originally were. Irena
Sendler details how Irena wrote down the names of the all the children whom
she helped save, and buried it to keep the identities of the children safe. Because of her, many children could find
their families again, and many more were able to escape certain death at the
hands of the Nazis.
Bottom
Line: This book is important, and would be a great addition to any teacher’s
unit on World War II. I think that this
book would not really be appropriate for children below 4th grade,
and I would only introduce this story to elementary school children with some
context.
Title: Irena
Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto
Author/Illustrator: Susan Goldman Rubin/Bill Farnsworth
Publisher/Publishing
Date: Holiday House/ 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment