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Irena Sendler. (AP / Archives) Last update - 06:15 15/03/2007 Poland's Senate honors woman who saved 2,500 Jews from Holocaust By The Associated Press Poland's parliament on Wednesday honored Irena Sendler, a 97-year-old credited with saving 2,500 Jews during the Holocaust, at a ceremony during which the country's president said she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. At a special session, members of the Senate - the upper house of parliament - unanimously approved a resolution honoring Sendler and the Polish underground Council for Assisting Jews. The group's members, mostly Roman Catholics, risked their own lives to save Jews from the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland. Advertisement The resolution honored Sendler, who lives in a nursing home in Warsaw and was too frail to attend the session, for organizing the rescue of the most defenseless victims of the Nazi ideology: the Jewish children. President Lech Kacyzinski said in an address to senators that Sendler is a great hero who can be justly named for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sendler led a team of some 20 helpers who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto to safety between 1940 and 1943, placing them in Polish families, convents or orphanages. She wrote the children's names on slips of paper and buried them in jars in a neighbor's yard as a record that could help locate the children's parents after the war. The Nazis arrested her in 1943, but she refused - despite being tortured repeatedly - to reveal their names. Anyone caught helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland risked being summarily shot, along with family members. "Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory," Sendler said in a letter read by Elzbieta Ficowska, whom Sendler saved as a baby. "Over a half-century has passed since the hell of the Holocaust, but its specter still hangs over the world and doesn't allow us to forget the tragedy." In 1965, Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial awarded Sendler one of its first medals given to people who saved Jews, the so-called Righteous Among the Nations. She was given the honor in 1983 after Poland's communist authorities finally agreed to allow her to travel abroad. "I think she's a great lady, very courageous, and I think she's a model for the whole international community," Israel's ambassador to Poland, David Peleg, said after the ceremony. I think that her courage is a very special one. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Nuclear allegation Jimmy Carter says Israel has arsenal of 150 nuclear weapons. On penalty of death Rightist MK Eldad says those who give away Israeli land should get death penalty.   1.   IRENA SENDLER 17:06  |  PJ 14/03/07   2.   Beautiful story! 17:56  |  David 14/03/07   3.   And she deserves to be honoured 18:13  |  Nik Miller 14/03/07   4.   Bless her heart 18:39  |  Leah 14/03/07   5.   mrs sendler 18:54  |  gosia 14/03/07   6.   What an inspiration 19:25  |  Amy 14/03/07   7.   Thank you Ms. Sendler 19:33  |  Jon 14/03/07   8.   Kol Hakavod to this Grand Old Lady 19:42  |  Ari ben Yisrael 14/03/07   9.   Poland honors womanwho saved Jews 19:53  |  Steven V Gure 14/03/07   10.   A true hero ! 19:54  |  Alex 14/03/07   11.   Kol ha kavod!!! G-d bless you and your family... 20:10  |  Iguana Pacheca 14/03/07   12.   Reparations 20:21  |  john bull 14/03/07   13.   May those who repeat vile things about Poland 20:24  |  Yaakov Sullivan 14/03/07   14.   #12 and #13; In the midst of honours bestowed on Irena Sendler 21:20  |  Haham Me Bat Yam 14/03/07   15.   Irena Sendler 21:31  |  molechaser 14/03/07   16.   Pani Irena is a true hero 21:43  |  hala 14/03/07   17.   Irena Sendler 21:50  |  Susan Woodward 14/03/07   18.   #13 Yaakov and Poland 21:54  |  hala 14/03/07   19.   Arafat, spit, got HER Nobel Prize 22:47  |  Rav Harley 14/03/07   20.   response to 14 00:04  |  gosia 15/03/07   21.   Poland`s loss 01:04  |  Stefan 15/03/07   22.   Poland`s loss 01:16  |  Stefan 15/03/07   23.   #22 Poland`s loss, by Stefan 06:57  |  hala 15/03/07   24.   Here is my wish for Poland and other 06:59  |  hala 15/03/07   25.   Here is my wish for Poland and other central European countries 07:04  |  hala 15/03/07   26.   Dear Hala 10:58  |  gosia 15/03/07   27.   Poland`s Senate Honors Woman Who Saved 2500 Jews 10:59  |  Helana 15/03/07   28.   Irena Sendler 00:52  |  Steph 14/05/08   29.   Irene Sendler 23:00  |  Monica Krieger 18/05/08   30.   SENDLER 02:30  |  Tania V.Levy 19/05/08   31.   Irena Sendler 15:42  |  Wilfredo Ladanga Jr. 27/05/08

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