The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler

The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler is a 2009 television film directed by John Kent Harrison. The film is a coproduction between American and Polish companies. The teleplay by Harrison and Lawrence John Spagnola, based on the 2007 biography Die Mutter der HolocaustKinder Irena Sendler und die geretteten Kinder aus dem Warschauer Ghetto DVA Dt.VerlagsAnstalt, ISBN 9783421059123 English translation 2010 The Mother of the Holocaust Children by Anna Mieszkowska, focuses on Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children to safety during World War II. The Hallmark Hall of Fame production, which was filmed on location in Riga, Latvia, was broadcast by CBS on April 19, 2009, and released to DVD in Hallmark Gold Crown stores in early June of that year.

Using forged identification to present herself as a nurse to guards at the entrance to the enclave where the Jewish population has been sequestered, Irena tries to convince the parents of young children to allow her to smuggle them out to safety. Many fear they will never see them again, and she assures them she will document where each child is sent to facilitate their reunion with their parents once the war is over. Others bemoan the fact their children will be raised in a faith other than their own and forget their religious beliefs and traditions, but Irena convinces them this is a small price to pay in exchange for keeping them alive.Among those helping Irena is Stefan, a Jewish friend from her university days. He is aware of a few overlooked exits from the ghetto and uses this knowledge to help Irena and others involved with the underground organization egota plan their strategies and devise routes to smuggle the children, some in boxes hidden under bricks on wheelbarrows, others through sewer systems, and still others brazenly escorted through the front door of the city hall handinhand with their savior. ........

Source: Wikipedia