<i>Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto</i> (review)
2011; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2011.0471
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies
ResumoReviewed by: Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto Hope Morrison Rubin, Susan Goldman . Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto; illus. by Bill Farnsworth. Holiday House, 2011. 40p. ISBN 978-0-8234-2251-7 $18.95 Ad Gr. 3-5. During World War II, Polish social worker Irena Sendler helped nearly four hundred Jewish children escape the Warsaw Ghetto and find safety with families and in orphanages throughout Europe. As a member of the Council for Aid to Jews, an underground organization working against the Nazis, Sendler spent years designing and executing "ingenious ways to smuggle out children": children were transported through the sewers, concealed in ambulances and body bags, and, in one instance, transported from the ghetto in a workman's toolbox. One of Sendler's greatest contributions was her scrupulous record-keeping; because many of the children she helped relocate were forced to change their Jewish names, Sendler's written record of birth names and adopted names was, for many survivors, the only means of locating family members after the war. Because Poland transitioned immediately from Nazi occupation to Communism, Sendler remained an enemy long after the war; it was not until the fall of communism in 1989 that her work was formally recognized and proper honors were bestowed upon her. In this third collaboration between Rubin and Farnsworth (The Anne Frank Case, BCCB 4/09, The Flag with Fifty-Six Stars, BCCB 4/05), facts are listed and events recalled with limited emotional inflection. Quotes from Sendler and from child survivors are incorporated throughout the text, but even this primary source material adds little to the mostly stodgy text. Farnsworth's oil paintings provide a more emotional representation of the dark times; full of deep [End Page 488] shadows and up-close portraiture, the illustrations add visual resonance to the topic. While the volume is a bit lengthy for a readaloud, it would work effectively shared over a period of several days in a group setting and could provide copious material for an individual biography project. A resource list and index are included. [End Page 489] Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Referência(s)