A book we need now more than ever.

** Trigger warning for anti-Semitic violence. **

Irena Sendlerowa (maiden name Krzyżanowska) was born on February 10, 1910 in Warsaw, Poland. Shew grew up in nearby Otwock, which was home to a large Jewish community. Her father Stanisław was a physician who treated everyone, regardless of their ethnicity or ability to pay. He contracted typhus in the line of duty, and died when Irena was just seven. Despite being raised by a single mother, Irena attended college, studying law and literature at the University of Warsaw. She was a socialist who was outspoken in support of her Jewish classmates. Identified as a leftist, she was denied employment in the Warsaw school system.

Instead, Irena was working for the Social Welfare Department when Germany invaded Poland. Here she was uniquely positioned to provide help to Poland’s most marginalized citizens. Irena’s department was allowed access to the Warsaw Ghetto, ostensibly to conduct sanitary inspections and help prevent the outbreak and spread of epidemics. Here she leveraged her position to make life a little more bearable for the ghetto’s 4,000 Jewish residents, by smuggling in food, clothing, and medicine – with the help of a large and ever-expanding group of family, friends, and colleagues, of course.

Irena also began smuggling out people, including dozens of children and babies, which she placed in a network of foster homes, orphanages, and religious sanctuaries. She diligently recorded the given name, fake name, and new address of each child, so that they could be reunited with their families after the war was over. In order to avoid incriminating herself in the event of a search – and making it easier for the Gestapo to find the missing children – Irena placed the names in jars, which she buried. Sadly, while her records survived the war, most of their would-be recipients did not. A majority of the children Irena and her network rescued – up to 2,500, by some estimates – were orphaned.

Perhaps the most astonishing part of Irena’s story is that she was captured, interrogated, and sentenced to death in 1943. Despite repeated torture, she did not name her co-conspirators or the people they rescued. She escaped when the Żegota, a Polish resistance organization with which she’d been working, bribed a German guard. Instead of giving up or fleeing the country, Irena resumed her subversive activities, albeit under an assumed name and new occupation: Klara Dąbrowska, nurse. Irena died of natural causes in 2008; she was 98 years old.

IRENA, BOOK ONE: WARTIME GHETTO covers the events through Irena’s capture by and escape from the Gestapo. To describe it as “powerful” is a gross understatement. It’s a force, though not quite like Irena. I imagine very few things could come that close. (Later in life, Irena rarely gave interviews, and vehemently insisted that she hated the word “hero” and did not consider herself one. If she wasn’t, then they simply don’t exist.)

While rooted firmly in fact, the narrative does contain some fictional and downright fantastical elements. For example, Morvan identifies the murder of a young boy by a sadistic SS officer as the impetus for Irena’s human smuggling; yet Wiki says that she began her operations when some friends were trapped on the Jewish side of the wall.
Still, some of the more surreal embellishments, like the ghosts (of Nethanial and the other murdered Jews, as well as Irena’s father, always guiding her towards what’s right) and Nethanial’s loyal and prescient dog, are inspired and will bring you to tears.

IRENA’S CHILDREN just moved higher on my TBR list; and, imho, a desire to learn more is usually a pretty good indicator of a comic book or tv show’s success.

The artwork has a Dickensian quality to it. It wasn’t my favorite at first, but it grew on me. It suits the mood and content of the story perfectly.

As I write this review, supporters of Drumpf’s border policy – which includes ramped up ICE raids across the country this weekend – are splitting hairs over terminology, questioning whether the “dog pounds” along the border qualify as “concentration camps.” I am reminded of that older woman who showed up to a rally for women’s rights bearing a sign that proclaims “I can’t believe I still have to protest this f***ing s***.” I wonder what Irena would do if she lived in Texas or New York or Minnesota in June of 2019.

Books about the Holocaust are never easy to read, but it is refreshing learning about the amazing people that risked their lives to save others - especially children. Irena was one of those people, and I enjoyed reading her story.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I realized that I had already read the book in the format of Irena's Children and had given it a 5 star review. So I do not need to re review it, but will keep the 5 star review in honor of a incredible woman and her group of dedicated doctors and people with real humanity who literally saved the lives of 25'00 children while risking their own lives, every single day.. A formidable feat.

This is an amazing story of a Polish woman who is one of the unsung heroes that risked their lives to save innocent Jewish children who were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. She was carrying in the work of her father who was a doctor who treated Jewish people even as they were being increasingly targeted. He eventually fell ill and died. Irena honors him by volunteering and fighting for food and medical supplies for those suffering in the ghetto. One day someone approaches her and brings her to a young woman who is dying. She begs Irina to get her son out. Irina wants to help but is reluctant to put others at risk- when she returns the next time the woman dies and the cruel Nazi Commander has tricked the young boy, leading to his death.
This is the birth of Irina’s resolve to save as many children as she can. At the time that a resistance group named Zagota approaches her she has saved 638 children. She has a jar hidden away with each child’s new and old names, along with their parents for after the war.
We see Irina taken in for interrogation and the torture is painful to think of. She never betrays the children or her network and escapes her execution because of a Nazi guard who was bribed.
I think this book is an excellent teaching tool, especially in today’s environment for older children and adults as well. I highly recommend this and can not wait for book two.
It should be in every classroom and library in America.
Thank you to #netgalley. This was an honor to read.

This book is amazing. It about Irena, an hero and her companions. I've cried so much reading this comics. I mean she was amazing, I have so much respect for doing what so many others didn't have the guts to do. She deserved so much.
I want to read so badly the second book! I'm just really happy to discover this amazing woman and may she be at peace now and may those children lived well and met their parents.

I love reading stories of Irena. So glad it was made into a graphic novel. Great artistry and drawings in this book

My students do well with graphic novels....it allows them to take a topic that might be a bit over their heads and make it more accessible. This is one of those times. Though it's a graphic novel, it is still very heavy content...and there is violence depicted. There are also some very difficult topics to digest. For this reason, I wouldn't recommend this book for anything under middle school, and even my middle schoolers would be on a case by case basis, based on maturity level.

This is an accessible way to learn about Irena Sendlerowa who was responsible for smuggling hundreds of children to safety from the Jewish ghettos during WWII in Poland. Do not be confused by the format being a graphic novel, because it does show children abused, murdered, shows death and torture. I would recommend this for adults looking to learn more about Irene, as well as high school students who may be studying the time period. I look forward to book two for more of Irene’s story.

This book is especially important during a time where we are asked to decided between being a follower and doing what we know is right.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.