Seminar „Irena Sendler. What do we know?”

Maria Zawadzka, 16 November 2016
On October 21st, 2010 in the hall no. in the Staszic Palace in Warsaw (72 Nowy Świat Street) at 10 am will take place the seminar of Teresa Torańska „Irena Sendler. What do we know?”. This open academic seminar is organized by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The main question at the center of this event is: what do we know today about Irena Sendler? Is her growing fame gradually transforming into a legend that begins to hide this absolutely fascinating  figure of the modern Polish history? Teresa Torańska will present the results of her research and invite the participants to a discussion.

Teresa Torańska is a journalist and writer. In the seventies she was collaborator of the “Kultura” (“Culture”) weekly, and later also the Paris “Culture”. She is author of the book “Oni” (“Them”), containing interviews with former communists, policy-makers and dignitaries, conducted during the martial law in Poland and focusing on their assessment of the achievements of communism in Poland. In 2000 she received the Ksawery Pruszyński Polish PEN Club Prize for the book “Them”. She is the first winner of the Barbara Łopieńska Award for the best press interview (with General Wojciech Jaruzelski). Currently she works in “Duży Format” (“Large Format”), supplement to the “Gazeta Wyborcza” newspaper, where she conducts interviews with the leading figures of the Polish political scene.

Irena Sendler, Righteous Among the Nations, activist of the underground Council to Aid Jews “Żegota”, working in the Welfare Assistance Department of the Warsaw Administration, saved 2,500 children during the Second World War. The children she helped rescue were brought out from the Warsaw ghetto onto the so-called Aryan Side. They received false papers and were placed in Polish orders, orphanages and families. Irena Sendler was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1965. 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. More about Irena Sendler.