REPOSTED FROM THE UK TELEGRAPH BLOG
I am ashamed to admit that I had never heard of Irena Sendler, whose obituary appeared in this morning’s paper. Hers is an awesomely humbling story, even by the standards of her heroic generation.
Irena Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
A Polish Catholic, she spirited some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, displaying casual and extraordinary courage. She kept a list of the children she had saved, hoping one day to reunite them with their parents – although, in the event, almost all lost their families in Treblinka. In 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo and tortured. Her legs and feet were broken, but she refused to give up her list. She was sentenced to death, but rescued, whereupon – almost unbelievably – she went back to work.
Here, though, is the sentence that leapt off the page at me: “Last year she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, eventually won by Al Gore.” Al Gore! I mean, nothing against the old lardbutt – it’s nice to see ex-politicians doing something they believe in rather than giving themselves over wholly to the getting of personal wealth – but making a film is not the same thing as donning a yellow star and smuggling babies past enemy soldiers.
Our generation, as Danny Kruger put it in the best tract of 2007, is moralistic rather than moral. We are better at holding opinions about what governments or multi-nationals should do than we are at doing the right thing by our neighbours. Having formed our opinions, we become self-righteous in a way that the Irena Sendlers of the world couldn’t understand.
“We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes”, she said towards the end of her life. “That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true – I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death.” There is a haunting sincerity to that statement. You can’t imagine Al Gore saying any such thing, can you?
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Wow, I’ve found a new hero. Thank you very much!
Also, excellent point abut Moralistic rather than Moral… I’ve never heard it placed so perfectly, and it’s an idea that’s been spinning around in my own head for quite some time.
Thank you 2×1000!
Jos Verhulst :”Why should anybody believe this story of Irena Sendler, and at the same time reject AGW?”
If AGW is real, why was it necessary for Al Gore to fake “reality” in his movie “An Inconvenient Truth”? One example: He used Hollywood created computer-generated footage of Antarctic ice shelves calving (taken straight from the movie The Day After Tomorrow)
http://newsbusters.org/node/20680?q=blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/04/22/abc-s-20-20-gore-used-fictional-film-clip-inconvenient-truth
The “Peace” Prize is a joke. Gore created unnecessary hysteria; he did nothing to contribute to world peace. At least he’s in “good” company with others who do not deserve it either: Jimmy (terrorist hugger) Carter and Yasser Arafat to name two.
The Nobel Peace prize has long been a political device foisted upon the world by the unqualified and despicable.
Hate to disappoint, But Al Gore didn’t even make a movie. FatAl narrated a piece of propaganda. Narrated. Propaganda. Political.
such bravery. many of us could take a page from her book. And she didnt even consider herself a hero.
…..great article, amazing lady
……..true Heros and Angels go about their work
every day with out thought of recognition.
the Noble Peace Prize and the Committee are not worthy of Irena
The story of Irena Sendler is hard to swallow. It is claimed that she has smuggled 2.500 jewish babies out of the ghetto. That makes 5 or 10 babies every day. And all these babies had to be placed somewhere. There are a lot of war propaganda stories, that have been believed widely but that finally turned out to be false. Here is a recent example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580357/'Wolf-woman'-invents-Holocaust-survival-tale.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/947275.html
Perhaps hard proofs backing the reality of this Sendler tale are lacking,and it is thinkable that some members of the Noble Peace Prize committee had their doubts. Of course, they should have had their doubts on Al Gore’s story, too.
To mention Al Gores name in the same sentence with this lady is an abomination. The Politically Correct crowd will have this next generation believing we are come from out of space.
Jos:
The children were taken and given, under false names, to other families. As a third of the population of Poland was murdered (half of them non-Jewish) during the war, it is probable that not all of them survived in any event.
She wrote down the names (the famous bottles-buried-in-the -garden story). She did this at deadly risk of discovery. They were recovered after the war. That is fairly good documentation for the numbers, considering the circumstances of the war.
Peter Martin,
Did you even read the story? The reason we “single out Al Gore” is because Sendler was nominated for the prize the year Al won. Sure, we could argue that Sendler should have been nominated in other years, and I do, but the year that she was finally nominated, Al won the prize instead. Does that seem fair to you?
If I were in Al’s shoes at the time, I doubt that I could even consider keeping the prize from a deserving hero such as Irena Sendler.
@ur momisugly topcdmentor,
The prize comes in many different categories. The peace prize is not about scientific advancement in any way.
And it IS phony science. I have yet to see even one piece of observational (sorry not computer models), real world evidence that CO2 warms the earth.
I suppose this is how Al Gore lives with this fact: At a recent graduation ceremony he implied Global Warming is as great of a threat as WW2 Fascism and that our generation could be the next great generation if we “solve” it. So yes…Al Gore DOES believe hes better then this woman.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356556,00.html
[…] got it from my favorite science site Wattsupwiththat. Snoop around his site and you will see that the justification for Gore winning the prize is […]
At a recent graduation ceremony he implied Global Warming is as great of a threat as WW2 Fascism
Appalling.
WWII, especially the European Theater, is probably my main area of expertise. The threat to, well, everything, was colossal. Unimaginable.
It’s pathetic when you see Al Gore’s name up there with past winners who really deserved their rewards. It’s a great pity that people like Irena Sendler who quietly and selflessly made such major contributions to humankind are either unknown or all too easily forgotten. Al Gore and his ilk are no more than money-grubbing parasites out for their own agrandizement.
I”m glad they didn’t sully this woman’s good name by adding her to a list that includes not just Al Gore and other windbags but the likes of Arafat, Al Baradaei and Peanut Jimmy Carter.
It would be shameful to insult such a fine and brave woman.
Echo chamber indeed
the argument is on a line with:
A dude inherits a swack of cash from his uncle who died,
he is not destitute but others are,
he should feel ashamed that he accepted the money rather than insist it be given to all poorer than he.
He is fat, obnoxious, a lair, a scumbag etc as well.
The uncle is a piece of crap because he didn’t give it to others who were more poor than the dude. Oh yes and he is a scumbag too. And so are the other members of his family who received some cash too.
Listen to yourselves people you’ve allowed yourselves to twist any story to fit your “verbal” fatwah against Gore. He may be wrong, the amazing lady is truly amazing, but why should her magnificence be used as a stick to hit someone with by people with an axe to grind?
Here’s another one for you: “the sky is blue, Gore is fat”
Impeccable argumentation.
That only holds up if you equate winning an undeserved prize to inheriting money in the normal course of affairs.
It’s bad enough if it’s a “cold fusion” prize for mistaken science. That would be a mere mistake.
But a peace prize for an extreme sanctimony that has been quite destructive in terms of human life and wellbeing (and threatens more damage) is beyond the pale.
Sort of like the prodigal son inheriting all the swag while his infinitely more deserving sister is cut out of the will.
Besides, this isn’t about the money, it’s about the credit.
My reply would be awarding any prizes to a single entity for being the best whatever is probably an enterprise in extreme sanctimony anyway, I mean who gets to pick the judges anyway?
That’s why if anybody needs criticising it’s the judges, see loads of people above.
If the prodigal son inherits it all, so what, whose was it to give? And it wasn’t the son’s fault he got it all. Once more it was the choice of the owner of the award who “judged” him suitable.
It really isn`t rocket science, admit it you don`t like Gore and you chose a stick to beat him with that wasn`t really suitable for the task.
Point.
In that sense, it is not his “fault” (unless, perhaps, it can be shown he “campaigned” for it).
And I quite freely admit an aversion to Gore. To the NP judges, as well. (I consider myself to be a liberal, but I consider those guys to be quite unliberal, even anti-liberal.)
Yet if there are two equal candidates for a beneficence one may judge the wisdom of which gets it.
It really isn`t rocket science, admit it you don`t like Gore and you chose a stick to beat him with that wasn`t really suitable for the task.
Agreed.
I don’t see why Al Gore should hang his head, he didn’t choose to award himself the prize, nor did he choose to be nominated. A different title and message would do this story and this woman more justice. She deserves to be recognized for what she did, not what she did not receive and she certainly doesn’t need to be compared to Al Gore in such a way that gives this fantastic story such a negative spin.
Again, Gore could have refused the prize. None of this changes the fact that he’s an extreme hypocrite.
I just found out about the Irena Sendler project “Life in a Jar”:
http://www.irenasendler.org/
It’s worth a look.