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Vendor
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik
Original language
Polish

SENDLEROWA W UKRYCIU

Anna Bikont

Irena Sendler is one of the most important figures in Polish history. Romanticized as a saint, she has become a symbol of Poland's innocence in the persecution of the Jews. In this profound historical narrative Anna Bikont shows the real Sendler, who does not fit into current Polish identity politics.

Under the German Occupation of Poland, Irena Sendler rescued hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, hiding them and thus saving them from certain death. In 1965 Israel honored her as a Righteous Among the Nations. Catholic Poland rediscovered her in 1999 as a national hero, in 2018 the “Sendlerowa-Year” was celebrated. Sendler functions as a withewash whenever Poland has to deal with its own role in the persecution of the Jews. Polish identity politics have moulded her according to their ideal.

Anna Bikont reveals the true, historical Irena Sendler. Even at a young age, Sendler was sceptical of the church. She became a leftist activist and after the war a loyal member of the Communist Partie. Bikont also listens to the voices of the forgotten protagonists of this episode in history: the Jewish children. In numerous
testimonies she documented their fear and the unlikeliness of their rescue. For Irina Sendler had to protect the children not only from the Nazis, but also from the Poles, who betrayed them.
Available products
Book

Published 2017-01-01 by Czarne

Comments

Israel Carmel Publishing

"The book is much more than a biography. It is a partial but profound description of the reality of war. Its writing required enormous stamina, wisdom, and modesty. The book is dense, factual, quick, and emotionally exhausting. (...) What makes the reading of Sendlerowa: In Hiding possible is the empathy that drove the author in her research and writing. If she was able to excavate that truth for us, to live with this material, we also have to face it. It's high time."