A little reminder for all of you that “The Courgeous Heart Of Irena Sendler“, starring Anna Paquin will air tonight April 19 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, recounts the inspiring true story of Irena Sendler who helped save the lives of 2,500 Jewish babies and young children in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
Academy Award winner Anna Paquin plays the title role; another Academy Award winner, Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock, In From the Night), plays her mother, Janina. Goran Visnjic (ER) is Stefan, a friend from Irena’s university days who helps Irena and her underground network map out strategies and routes to smuggle the children out of the ghetto.
Anna Paquin in a scene from "The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler"
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I have my DVR all set to record and I’ll be watching. I know Anna Paquin will be just fabulous in such a great story.
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Same here. Can’t wait to see this story.
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An Open Letter to The Nobel Peace Prize Committee
October 13, 2007
Irena Sendler recounts that if mothers waiting in the Ghetto for their death were unable to separate themselves from their children, whom only she was able to rescue, Irena Sendler would one day return to find an empty apartment. The families would already be on trains to Treblinka. Only then did Irena Sendler know for certain that no one in the world was able to save that child – that in a few hours a horrible death would await him or her in a gas chamber – because only she could have, and now it was too late.
No League of Nations, no humanitarian organization, no International Red Cross, no Catholic Church, no Pope, no association of Protestant Churches, no court, no government, no parliament, no president, no prime minister, no marshal, no king, no police, and no army was able to help these children; nor did they. No European nor world institution, no system of collective safeguards created to thwart the massive and genocidal murder of the innocent and defenseless was able to save these children; nor did it.
During World War II, in the geographic heart of Christian Europe, Europeans for years were murdering millions of people for racial reasons.
For the first time in history, Europeans were also murdering children en masse. Jewish and Gypsy children, like their parents, were starved to death, tortured, subjected to pseudo-scientific experimentation, were victimized by professional killing squads (Einsatzgruppen), were buried and burned alive, were gunned down, and foremost, were murdered in the gas chambers of death camps. In fact a certain constituency of the adult world came to the conclusion in those years that killing parents was not enough, that killing children was just as proper, and just as necessary. These people had at their disposal both the means and power to do so. And thus they killed over a million and a half children. These children were not murdered by lunatics, but by the organized, precise, and efficient machine of a totalitarian state.
Europe did not want, could not, and was not able to do anything about this. One part of Europe was unaware. Another part of Europe was ambivalent. Yet another part of Europe was helpless and powerless. Europe in general was guilty of looking the other way, of cowardice, and of a lack of imagination. Still another part of Europe was guilty of active participation in atrocities. The only help these children received came rather sporadically from a few, regular, unknown people who believed their lives were not worth more than the lives of these children; that is why they risked themselves. These people saved lives, but they also preserved the very fundamental values without which life has no meaning at all.
Irena Sendler, a thirty-year-old Polish woman from Warsaw, along with a group of co-conspirators, rescued the largest number of children during those years. Irena Sendler, without waiver, risked her life, and acted with bravery and efficiency to save them. She would place a band with the Star of David on her arm, walk through gates of the Ghetto, and thus would begin her fight with the most powerful extermination machine in human history. She would take Jewish children by the hand, and risking her own life, would secure not only their life, but also the lives of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. It is necessary to remember this to understand the words of the Talmud: “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”
Irena Sendler saved this world day-by-day, child-by-child, and the world didn’t even know it.
Finally, after more than six decades, there came a moment for the world to know who saved it. Irena Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – at ninety-seven years of age – as the last living representative of a small number of the epoch’s moral giants who acted precisely when Europe was at its moral nadir.
The world must know about Irena Sendler because the world will need her again, more than once. The world needs her constantly and continually. Wherever organizations, institutions, and collective safeguards against lawlessness and mass murder fail, Irena Sendler is essential. When racial, class, or religious hatred comes to power, and has the means of mass-murder at its disposal, everything fails except the will of a single individual and their determination to save human life at the cost of their own. Irena Sendler never fails.
Today we can only hope that there is an Irena Sendler of 2007 in Darfur, where an official UN report claims there are over a million children exposed to death, rape, and torture, without the protection of even a single humanitarian institution.
The nomination of Irena Sendler for the Nobel Peace Prize gave you the chance to recognize the universal message of peace embodied in her character and her work.
Yet after sixty years, you, the members of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, an honored European and world institution, failed to recognize the work of Irena Sendler as deserving of the highest distinction in service of the idea of peace. Saving the lives of over 2,500 Jewish children from certain death by Irena Sendler at a time when Europe was paralyzed by fear and powerlessness, and the punishment for helping even one Jewish child was death, did not merit distinction in your eyes.
You failed to recognize that in extreme situations, when peace is not only endangered but becomes a dead concept, if it is necessary to save innocent life, humanity can only count on Irena Sendler’s stand, and the bearing of those who think and act as she did, no matter the time and place.
You failed to recognize that this was the final chance to honor one of the last living persons who did the most for peace, not in a military or political sense, but entirely in the real-world sense, where matters of life and death of innocents actually take place when the world’s ethical compass is destroyed.
You failed to recognize that awarding Irena Sendler the Nobel Peace Prize would not award the past as much as it could be your stand for the future of the world.
That same world that Irena Sendler remembers from the Warsaw Ghetto: Did the World help me when I was saving these children? I walked the streets, crying over my helplessness…
In January, 2007, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Irena Sendler said: The world has learned nothing from the lessons of World War II and the Shoah.
By your decision, announced on October 12th, 2007, you proved that you, as the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, do in fact belong to that same world that had understood little and had learned even less.
Paul Jedrzejewski
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Anna is Brilliant in this movie.
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A brilliant story of a strong determined womans stand against Nazi cruelty and cowardice, in a time when they showed an absolute disgusting display of non-humanity to ever grace human history.
What a beautiful show. I just loved it ! Thank you to Hallmark for bring Irena’s story to life. Anna did a wonderful job on this ! Such a turn around to go from TB to this. Great Job Kiddo !
I understand the DVD of The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler will be available for purchase an all Hallmark stores in June.
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What an amazing story. Irena Sendler was truly a heroic individual. She unselfishly altered the lives of thousands. Well done, Irena.
Anna Paquin did a wonderful job in this role. I can imagine that bringing this extraordinary women’s life to the screen was an absolutely harrowing experience. She suffered tremendous hardship for the sake of others. How people like Irena Sendler come to exist, I don’t even know. But without them we would never know the magnitude of human potential.
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That was a really good movie! So sad and heartbreaking, but with an uplifting ending. Anna did a wonderful job.
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I was so moved by Anna Paquin’s portrayal of Irena Sendler.
This movie had me in tears. I hope that everyone who has seen this movie
tells 10 others to buy the DVD when it comes out in June.
We must learn from our history so that we NEVER repeat it!
Thank you Hallmark for making this powerful movie and for casting Anna in the title role!
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What a courageous story! Anna and the whole cast were great! And those children…..
I liked the litlle piece at the end when they had the real Irena talking about the Jewish and Polish families and how hard it was to separate from the children. The announcer at the end of the movie said the DVD would be available in all Hallmark Crown stores in early June.
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Well here is another Award for Anna, she did an outstanding Job..
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I agree with what has already been said- Wonderful story, and AP was great. Thanks to those Kansas students for uncovering a real life heroine’s story!
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I’m just so glad this story came to light and those high school students and their teacher persevering.
Thank you Anna, Hallmark Hall of Fame, but most of all, thank you Irena Sendler for not letting us forget!
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Paul Jedrzejewski says:
“Irena Sendler saved this world day-by-day, child-by-child, and the world didn’t even know it.
Today we can only hope that there is an Irena Sendler of 2007 in Darfur, where an official UN report claims there are over a million children exposed to death, rape, and torture, without the protection of even a single humanitarian institution.”
Tell it all, my brother.
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I watched this movie last night and I thought it was outstanding! Anna was brilliant and so beautiful! It was one of the most touching movies I have ever seen. KUDOS Anna and Hallmark!
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