CBS to air movie on 'courageous' Polish Catholic who rescued Jewish children

New York City, N.Y., Apr 18, 2009 / 12:58 pm (CNA).- On Sunday evening CBS will broadcast a movie about the heroic efforts and courageous heart of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker who created and led an underground group that rescued Jewish children from Nazi persecution. Sendler created and led a conspiracy of women who moved in and out of Warsaws Jewish Ghetto disguised as nurses. While saying that they were simply to prevent and contain the spread of Typhus and Spotted Fever, Sendler and her companions helped the children of consenting Jewish parents escape imminent deportation to death camps, CBS' website says.

The children were sometimes sedated and hidden inside boxes, suitcases and coffins to escape the ghetto. They were given new identities and placed with Polish families and in convents.

Sendler kept a hidden record of the childrens birth names and locations in hopes that they could be reunited with their families. About 2,500 children were smuggled to safety, with none being discovered by the Nazis.

After the Nazis discovered her operation in 1943, Sendler was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, who broke her feet. On the day of her execution, she was rescued by the underground network Zegota, with which she had worked to save Jewish children.

She kept a Divine Mercy holy card from her prison cell until 1979, when she gave the card to Pope John Paul II as a gift.

CBS will broadcast The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, on Sunday, April 19 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. It will star Anna Paquin as Irena while her mother will be played by Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden.

Nathaniel Parker will play the role of Dr. Majkowski, the head of Warsaws Department of Health who helped Sendlers operation. Goran Visnjic will play Stefan, a Jewish university friend of Sendler with whom she fell in love when she began her underground operation.

The movie is based on Sendlers authorized biography, Anna Mieszkowskas 2005 book Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story.

Sendler was granted the title Righteous among the Nations by the organization Yad Vashem of Jerusalem in 1965 and was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.

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[jubbs30]

I cannot believe that you are saying there was no such thing as the Holocaust!! You are the ignorant one! How do you deny such a thing, there is evidence! That is so ignorant and terrible of you to deny that, these people were put through hell because of ridiculous reasons!! It is completely nonsense of you to say that it is a big story, and that it is a profitable industry. And it probably is profitable, people care about these things you fool.

[shalindriaharam]

Well God  Bless her heart, what a brave lady!

[thegreatfearblog]

@TheLilliputmovie No, it's you fools and liars who perpetuate the lies.

[TheLilliputmovie]

@thegreatfearblog

you idiot. my father's entire family was murdered by the Nazis at Chelmno, the first extermination camp in the occupied Poland. Grow a brain (obviously too much to ask for you to care--it is fools like you who perpetuate the lies. disgusting!

[APhilCollinsFan]

May her name shine forever among the stars, she is a real hero and angel , thank you lrena !

[thegreatfearblog]

@jubbs30 what evidence of 6 million dead do you have? Photos of a few hundread emasculate prisoners suffering from syphilis? Reports from the likes of Eli Wiesel which go beyond the comically absurd?

[toiseywoisey]

And to think, Al Gore and her were both up for the Nobel Peace Prize and HE was chosen!!!

[peem10]

Was he there during the war? And why do you believe him, and not the eye-witnesses who managed to survive?