Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

Part 2 takes place in Warsaw, beginning just prior to the German invasion of Poland. Irena Sendler is woken up by explosions shaking her whole building, followed closely by her mother pounding on her door to get her down to the bomb shelter. Her thoughts shift briefly to her husband, Mietek, a lieutenant in the Polish army, despite her knowledge that their marriage had essentially run its course. After the all-clear an hour later, Irena dresses and leaves for work at the Social Welfare office, joining the “sparse but confused rush hour of Warsovians trying to live normally on the first day of war” (67).

“The two Irenas,” Sendler and her coworker Schultz, use their positions to engage in welfare fraud in order to assist their Jewish clients. During another bombing raid, the two discuss whether or not to trust their boss, Jan Dobraczynski; Irena Schultz believes that they will soon have to as the situation in Warsaw worsens. The two Irenas had themselves met due to a matter of trust. Irena Sendler had been falsifying documents in order to assist Jewish and Romani clients; Irena Schultz, her superior, had noticed the alterations, but instead of reporting her or firing her, told her: “Next time, only change the year,” rather than the full birthdate, as “[t]hat’s an honest, careless mistake” (71), unlikely to be noticed.