Elie Wiesel was a Jewish man born in 1928 in Romania. He was raised in a Jewish home and was consequently sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Later, he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. During his stay in the concentration camps, he lost his entire family, including his father who passed away only eight weeks before the Buchenwald camp's liberation. His survival was an inspirational story that has been passed down to the youth of the world in Wiesel's classic novel, "Night." Unfortunately, the poet laureate and valiant author passed away at age 87 on July 2, 2016. In honor of this incredible man, here are two women that we should all recognize as heroes of the Holocaust.
Irena Sendler
Irene Sendler was an amazing Polish woman who smuggled 2,500 children out of the ghetto and turned them over to non-Jewish families for adoption. She knew that what the Nazis were doing was wrong, and despite her father being one of the first Polish Nazis, she did something about it. She kept the names of all of the children that she saved and where they were sent in jars that she hid under an apple tree and later went back to retrieve. She then informed the children of their pasts and where they came from. She didn't go unnoticed by the Nazis though, and she was captured by the Gestapo and tortured for the names of the children and where they were sent. She withstood the torture of having her legs and feet broken and was sentence to death. Her Jewish associates bribed the prison guards and Irena escaped with her life. She hid for the remainder of the war then searched for all of the children that she saved in order to tell them about their families. Irene Sendler sadly passed in 2008 at the age of 98. She is a strong independent woman who the youth of the world should be taught about and should emulate.
Thank you Irena for your service to the youth of the world!
Ludviga Pukas
Ludviga Pukas was an incredibly brave Ukrainian woman who in 1937 moved to the same town as Frima Sternik, a Jewish teacher. When the Germans took over the town in 1941, the Sternik home was burned to the ground. Due to the perilous nature of the situation and the close friendship between the Pukas and Sternik families, Ludviga took the Sternik children in as her own. Their papers had been destroyed in the fires, so when they went for new papers, they were catalogued as Ludviga's children. Frima Sternik began to worry and the Germans took notice of her. Ludviga sent her to her brother's in a nearby village, but Frima was killed on the way. The police eventually came to the Pukas house, where not only the Sternik children were hiding, but also another Jewish woman that Ludviga was helping. She was able to save the children by hiding them as her children, but unfortunately lost the woman to the Nazis. After the liberation of the city in 1944, the children found their family, but still stayed with and referred to Ludviga as their mother. Ludviga's sacrifice is a lesson to all the young women in the world. Her story teaches us the importance of doing what is right, even in the face of unspeakable danger.
Thank you Ludviga for your service to the youth of the world!
For more inspirational stories about women of the Holocaust, click here!
