Anti-Semitic inscription on the grave of Irena Sendler

The police from the Warsaw Wola district is currently conducting an investigation. So far the journalist of the “Warsaw Television Courier” has been interrogated – she is the one who informed law enforcement bodies about this outrageous event. Sub-inspector Maciej Karczyński, spokesman of the chief of the Warsaw police, informed that in the nearest future the police will try to get to the witnesses of this event. The person who desecrated Irena Sendler’s grave can land in prison even for 5 years.

The inscription appeared on the family grave at the Stare Powązki cemetery, where a new plaque with Irena Sendler’s name has been set. This is how Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski comments this act of vandalism: “Someone had the wrong address. Both parents of Irena Sendler nee Krzyżanowska were Poles. Even if this person wanted to get rid of the dead Jews from the cemetery, it does not concern Irena Sendler. She was a social worker, she had a beautiful life. I don’t know why it is on her that someone decided to vent his mental disturbance”.

The family and friends of Irena Sendler, as well as the people she saved, are outraged at this act of vandalism. Michał Głowiński, one of the children saved by the Righteous, said: “I suppose it was some young fool who did it. Idiotic inscriptions are something reprehensible. Such inscriptions at a cemetery are a disgusting act”. The daughter of Irena Sendler, Janina Zgrzembska, shocked by this event, commented it with the following words: “I am counting on the conscience of people, in a so-called Catholic country, where it is said: do not steal, do not kill, maybe it should also be added: do not destroy graves?”.

On July 15th the Polish Jews Forum has submitted an appeal to the highest Polish authorities, asking them to react in a firm manner to this outrageous event. The appeal reads the following words: “The grave of Irena Sendler is not an ordinary grave. It is the place where rests a person who symbolizes the values for which whole generations laid down their lives. It is not only the grave of Irena Sendler that has been desecrated. It is also the memory and values being the foundations of our Homeland”.

Irena Sendler, Righteous Among the Nations, activist of the underground Council to Aid Jews “Żegota”, saved 2,500 children during the Second World War. In 2007 the Righteous was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She passed away on May 12, 2008 in Warsaw, at the age of 98.