13. The Polish Woman Who Stood Up to the Nazis
PHOTO: mentalfloss.com
Irena Sendler knew exactly what was going to happen when the Nazis invaded her country and rounded up all the Jews into a ghetto. She was a social worker at the time and got credentials as a nurse so she could sneak food and medicine into the ghetto. Not only that, but she organized a small group of people who smuggled over 2500 children out, sedated and hidden in bottomless toolboxes or in burlap sacks in the bottom of her truck. They were sent away to safety and given new lives and identities.
Sendler was eventually caught and tortured by the Nazis. She survived, though, and when the war ended she devoted the rest of her life to reuniting lost children with their families. She’s a true hero.
