Holocaust survivor groups here have joined the recommendation of the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, to award the Nobel Peace Prize to 96-year-old Irena Sandlar.

Sandler, who was a member of the Polish underground group Zegota that was dedicated to saving Jews, was recognized by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in 1965 for smuggling numerous Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The children received false papers and were either adopted by Christian families or sent to convents. Sandler, however, recorded the real names of 2,500 children on lists that were placed in glass jars and buried, with the hope that the youngsters would eventually be returned to their families. The Gestapo arrested Sandler in October 1943. Despite being tortured, she refused to reveal the children's identity, and was sentenced to death by a Nazi court. The underground group freed her, and she lived in hiding under an assumed identity until the end of the war.

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If Sandler, who still lives in Poland, is chosen for the Nobel award, it would be the first time the honor would be bestowed to a righteous Gentile.

"Giving the Nobel prize to a Righteous Gentile is a fitting response to those who still dare to deny the Holocaust," the chairman of the umbrella organization of Holocaust survivors in Israel, Noah Poleg, said. Poleg added that if Sandler receives the prize, it would be the first time it has been awarded in conjunction with the Holocaust.

The chair of the Association of Cracovians in Israel, Lili Haber, wrote to Kaczynski that Sandler had never publicized her actions, but rather shied away from publicity. She used her wisdom and goodness to save lives and then educate others to understand the difficulties encountered by the survivors.

Joining the campaign on behalf of Sandler are the Israel-Poland Friendship Association and the Lublin and Polish survivors' organizations.