Two Women's Stories of Resistance
Chantal Billman


Resisting the Nazis was not an easy thing, especially doing it alone. These two women believed in what they were doing, knowing that no human deserved the fate that many Jews faced. Through their compassion and love for others, these women were able to save almost 4,000 Jewish lives combined. 

Emilie Schindler

Emilie’s story begins in the 1930’s, when her husband was unable to find work; he joined the Nazi Party hoping to secure himself a job like many others had done. After joining, he was given the responsibilities of running and managing an enamelware and ammunition factory. The Schindler’s decided to risk their lives by employing Jews to work in their factories in an attempt to save as many as they could from the death camps. Through bribery and connections Oskar and Emilie were able to employ over 1,000 Jews. Emilie and Oskar devoted themselves to the Jews under their care. They spent every pfennig they had to buy food, clothes, and medicine for the workers. One specific incident Emilie remembers was when she was confronted by some Nazi troops who were transporting four train-car loads of Jews from Golechau to one of the death camps. Emilie persuaded them to leave the Jews in the train-cars with her, saying that they were in need of more factory workers for the continuing war industry production. In Emilie Schindler’s memoir, she writes, “We found the railroad car bolts frozen solid…the spectacle I saw was a nightmare almost beyond imagination. It was impossible to distinguish the men from the women: they were all so emaciated - weighing under seventy pounds most of them, they looked like skeletons. Their eyes were shining like glowing coals in the dark." Of the 20 people they found in the cars, 13 people were already dead, while the rest of them were just barely alive. None of them were strong enough to walk on their own, so each person was carried out of the train cars like a carcass. Emilie worked tirelessly, devoting much of her time to this group, hoping to revive them. She emptied one of the large rooms in the factory for them to stay and be cared for. Three more men died, but with the care, the warmth, the milk and the medicine, the others gradually rallied. These people who survived from her devotion to them will never forget Emilie and the heroic acts she performed.




Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler was a senior administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which was in charge of soup kitchens, located in every district of the city. They would distribute food and other necessities to the elderly, poor, and orphans. However, these services were not given to the Jewish people in need. Because of these restrictions, Irena decided to involve herself in acquiring forged documents, and registering many Jews under Christian names so they could receive these services; she listed them all as typhus and tuberculosis victims, to avoid any investigations. Even with all of this, Irena desired to help more. She ended up joining the Zegota, which was the Council for Aid to Jews. This organization was organized by the Polish underground resistance, operating out of London with the help of many British Jews. Through them, she was able to obtain a pass from the Warsaw Epidemic Control Department to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to remove people who had serious diseases like tuberculosis and typhus to prevent it from spreading. On her trips in she would smuggle in food, medicine, and clothing, as well as smuggle Jewish children out. To keep from being caught, Irena, code name “Jolanta” would sedate the younger children to keep them from crying, then hide them inside sacks, boxes, body bags, or coffins. For the older children, she would have them pretend to be ill, so they could be taken out in ambulances. Many were smuggled through sewers or underground tunnels, or taken through an old courthouse or church next to the Ghetto. Outside the Ghetto walls, the children were given false names and documents. Irena would then write their real names on cigarette papers along with their newly given name. She kept these cigarette papers buried in a glass jar in her backyard so that someday, the children might be reunited with relatives that survived. All 2,500 of the children Irena smuggled out were relocated to Polish family’s homes. For two years, Jolanta's covert operations were successful. Then, in October 20, 1943, the Gestapo caught up with her. She was arrested, imprisoned in Warsaw's notorious Pawiak prison. She refused to betray any of her co-conspirators or to reveal the whereabouts of any of the children, so they tortured her, breaking both of her feet and legs. The breaks were so severe, preventing her from ever being able to walk on her own again. Irena’s “children” were important to her, and even after all she has suffered, she only wishes she had saved more.