NANCY WAKE

                                                                  A WAR HEROIN
                                                                   NANCY WAKE
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake was a secret agent during the Second World War. (All information is from Wikipedia)
Born in New Zealand, on 30th August 1912, Nancy was the youngest of six children. In 1914, the family moved to Australia and settled in North Sydney. Here, Nancy attended the North Sydney Household Arts School but ran away from home at the age of 16 and worked as a nurse. With £200 that she had inherited from an aunt, she journeyed to New York City, then London, where she trained herself as a journalist. In the 1930's, she worked in Paris and later for Hearst newspapers as an European correspondent.

Nancy witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement and "saw roving Nazi gangs randomly beating Jewish men and women in the streets" of Vienna.
In 1937, on 30th November, Nancy married Henri Edmond Fiocca. She was living in Marseille in France , when Germany invaded. After the fall of France in 1940, Nancy became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. The Gestapo called Nancy "The White Mouse" because of her ability to elude capture. The Resistance exercised caution with Nancy's missions; her life was in constant danger, with the Gestapo tapping her telephone and intercepting her mail.

In 1942, Nancy was now the Gestapo's most wanted person, with a price of 5 million francs on her head. As the war became more dangerous, Nancy fled France, leaving her husband behind, who was later captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo. Henri never gave his wife away !
After reaching Britain, Nancy joined the Special Operations Executive and was trained by them in several different training programs. It was noted that Nancy "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character." In 1944, she went back to France, allocating arms and equipment and minding the groups finances. Nancy became instrumental in recruiting more members and led attacks on German installations, at one point destroying the local Gestapo HQ in Montlucon. From March 1944 until the liberation of France, Nancy and the others fought the Germans by any means possible.

After the war, Nancy Wake was awarded the George Medal, the United States Medal of Freedom, the Medaille de la Resistance, and thrice, the Croix de Guerre. It was at this time that Nancy found out that her husband was dead and how he died --- she blamed herself !

IRENA SENDLER

                                                       A War Heroine
                                                       Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, nom de guerre "Jolanta", was a Polish nurse, humanitarian, and social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War Two in German-occupied Warsaw, and was head of the children's section of Zegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews, which was active from 1942-1945. (All information is from Wikipedia)
Assisted by some two dozen other Zegota members, Irena smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity documents and shelter, outside the Ghetto, saving those children from the Holocaust.
The German occupiers eventually discovered her activities, and she was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and sentenced to death, but managed to evade execution and survive the war.

Irena was born Irena Krzyzanowska on 15th February, 1910, in Warsaw. Her father was a physician who treated the very poor free of charge, including Jews. Irena grew up on Otwock, where there was a vibrant Jewish community. She studied Polish literature at Warsaw university, and joined the Polish Socialist Party. Irena married Mieczyslaw Sendler in 1931.
Irena moved to Warsaw prior to the outbreak of Wold War Two, and worked for municipal Social Welfare Departments. She began aiding Jews soon after the German invasion in 1939, by leading a group of co-workers who created more than 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families. This was done at huge risk to the person and their family as giving any assistance given to Jews in German-occupied Poland was punishable by death.

In August 1943, Irena, by then known by her nom de guerre Jolanta, was nominated by the Zegota (the underground organization also known as the Council to Aid Jews) to head its Jewish Children's Section. As an employee of the Social Welfare Department, Irena had a special permit to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to check for signs of typhus (a disease the Germans feared would spread beyond the Ghetto). Irena wore a Star of David as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people during these visits. During this time, Irena and her co-workers smuggled out babies and small children, sometimes in ambulances and trams, sometimes hiding them in packages and suitcases, and using various other means.

The Jewish children were placed with Christian Polish families and were given Christian names and taught Christian prayers in case they were tested. "Sendler was determined to prevent the children from losing their Jewish indentities, and kept careful documentation listing the children's fake Christian names, their given names, and their current locations." These lists were buried in jars. The aim was to return the children to their original families when the war was over.

In 1943, Irena was arrested by the Gestapo and severly tortured. She never betrayed her colleagues or the children. Irena was sentenced to death but was saved by the Zegota. After her escape, Irena hid from the Germans, and then with a fake identity, returned to Warsaw and continued her involvement with Zegota. Irena continued to work as a nurse in a public hospital until the Germans left Warsaw. She saved five Jews by hiding them.

Irena was recognized as one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.

To finish in Irena Sendler's own words :

"Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory."

HENRYK SLAWIK

                                                                    A WAR HERO
                                                                HENRYK SLAWIK
Henryk Slawik was a Polish politician in the interwar period, social worker, activist, and diplomat, who during World War two helped save over 30,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 Polish Jews in Budapest, Hungary, by giving them false passports with Catholic designation. Henryk was executed with some of his fellow Polish activists on order of Reichsfuhrer  SS in Concentration Camp Gusen on 23rd August, 1944. (All information is taken from Wikipedia.)

Henryk was born 16th July, 1894, into an impoverished Polish Silesian family as one of its 5 children. His mother sent him to an Academic Secondary School. After graduation, Henryk left his hometown, thus starting his journey towards saving lives.
In 1928, Henryk married a Varsovian, Jadwiga Purzycha. World War Two broke out and Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Henryk joined the Polish mobilised police battalion attached to the Krakow Army. He was taken to a POW camp near Miskoic and was 'freed' thanks to his fluent knowledge of German. He was taken to Budapest and allowed to create the Citizen's Committee for Help for Polish Refugees. Together with Joseph Antall, Henryk organized jobs for POW's and displaced persons, schools and orphanages.

Henryk started to issue false documents confirming (those of Jewish descent) their Polish roots and Roman Catholic faith. One of Henryk's initiatives was the creation of an orphanage for Jewish children (officially named School of Polish Officers) in Vac. To help disguise the true nature of the orphanage, the children were visited by Catholic Church authorities.
After the Nazis took over Hungary in March, 1944, Henryk went underground and ordered as many of the refugees as were under his command to leave Hungary. The Jewish children of the orphanage in Vac were also evacuated.

On 19th March, 1944, Henryk was arrested by the Germans and although he was brutally tortured, Henryk never informed on others. He was sent to the Concentration Camp Gusen and Henryk Slawik was hanged with others on 23rd August, 1944.
His wife survived the Ravensbruck concentration camp and after the war, found their daughter hidden in Hungary by the Antall family.

It is  estimated that 30,000 Polish refugees in Hungary, approximately 5,000 of them Jews, were saved by Henryk. After 1948, the communist authorities of both Poland and Hungary did commemorate Henryk Slawik's deeds and pointed out his importance for humanity.
Henryk Slawik was posthumously awarded the title of "Righteous Among The Nations."

OSKAR SCHINDLER

                                                                OSKAR SCHINDLER
                                                                         A War Hero
Oskar was born on 28th April, 1908, to Johann "Hans" Schindler, the owner of a farm machinery business, and Franziska "Fanny" Schindler. His sister, Elfriede, was born in 1915. On 6th March, 1928, Oskar married Emilie Pelzl (1907 - 2001) and the young couple lived in the upstairs rooms in the same house as Oskar's parents, for seven years. During all of this time, Oskar went through several jobs, eventually becoming a spy for the Abwehr, an intelligence service of Nazi Germany in 1936. (All information is from Wikipedia.)

Oskar acquired an enamelware factory called Rekord Ltd. At its peak business in 1944, the business employed 1,750 workers,a thousand of whom were Jews. Oskar used his position within Nazi Germany to hire the Jews, thus saving them from the concentration camps and almost certain death. What Courage Oskar showed !
To start off with Oskar hired the Jews because they were cheaper but eventually his human side took over, and Oskar began shielding his workers without regard to cost. The status of his factory as a business essential to the war effort became a decisive factor enabling him to help his Jewish workers. Seeing the horrific injustices met out to the Jews, Oskar "changed his mind about the Nazis" and tried to save as many Jews as he possibly could. During the months to come, Oskar and his wife did literally everything they could to save as many Jewish lives as possible, even using blackmarket "bribes" to free Jews from Auschwitz. On 7th March, 1945, Oskar and his workers gathered on the factory floor to listen to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announce over the radio that Germany had surrendered and the war in Europe was over.

As a member of the Nazi party and the Abwehr intelligence service, Oskar was in danger of being arrested as a war criminal. Several "friends" prepared a statement he could present to the Americans attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives. He had lost his fortune during the war, using it to try to save as many Jewish lives as possible and, after the war, had to survive on donations and "menial jobs".
Oskar died on 9th October, 1974, and was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi party to be honoured in this way. For his work during the war, Oskar Schindler was named "Righteous Among The Nations", as award bestowed by the State of Israel on non-Jews who took an active role to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Other awards include the German Order Of Merit (1966).
Oskar Schindler was quoted as saying :"I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them: there was no choice." Oskar is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them.