Amid the brutality of the Nazi concentration camps, Irena Sendler helped save 2500 children. Then the modest woman stood firm against Gestapo torture
IN the balmy afterglow of Australia Day, we count our blessings in a nation that, despite its fires and floods, has been remarkably fortunate, compared with other parts of the world -- and especially compared with Poland.
Through unlucky geography, internal discord and the evil intentions of powerful neighbours, the Eastern European republic has suffered more than most at the sharp end of history.
The 66th anniversary today of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland, reminds us that it is at times of extreme duress that the souls of men and women are put to the test.
Some respond with opportunistic cruelty. Some turn their backs on suffering, through cowardice or plain indifference. Others try to help in small ways, as long as there is no risk to their own wellbeing.
Then there are the heroes, ordinary men and women who commit such acts of selfless courage that they transcend ordinary existence and expunge, or at least counterbalance, the evil that humanity too often brings on itself.
In Poland during World War II there
was ample opportunity to see the worst as well as the best of human nature.
In the latter category are two women named Irena -- one of whom later migrated to Australia -- who saved hundreds of people from the
Nazi Holocaust.