Got a Girl Crush On: Irena Sendler
During WWII, Irena Sendler got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist–but she had ulterior motives. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the toolbox she carried or a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger children.
Irena also kept a dog that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
Irena managed to smuggle out and save a total of 2,500 children and babies. Ultimately she was caught and the Nazi’s broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.
However, she kept a record of the names of all the children she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her backyard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the families. Most had been gassed and the kids she helped were placed into foster family homes or adopted.
In 2007, Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize–but lost to Al Gore, who won for a slide show on Global Warming. Later another politician, Barack Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.
She was, however, awarded many other means of recognition for her work worldwide.