Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

In May 2001, Megan’s mother and Liz’s grandparents, along with Mr. C. and his wife, accompany the girls to Poland. The clear customs and are waiting for their luggage. Whenever the doors open, they see “a boisterous crowd,” “cameras flashing,” and “people waving and shouting”(263).They wonder if someone famous happened to be on the flight with them. Once they exit, however, they quickly discover that the crowd is there for them, the “Sendlerowa Girls” (264). “A fusillade of questions in various permutations of English” (264)bombard them; the girls don’t know what to do, but Mr. C. encourages them to stay calm and answer their questions. A representative from the Wall Street Journal attempts to get the group to follow them into waiting limousines; however, Renata and Bieta fight their way through the crowd and, after briefly fighting with the Wall Street Journal reporter in Polish, lead the group instead to their own cars, waiting outside.

Early the next morning, an agent from a Polish television station calls them to request a short performance in front of the Ghetto Fighter’s Memorial; the group quickly dress and meet them to perform the Mrs. Rosner scene. When they arrive, they are surprised at how normal the site is: they arrive “not into the Warsaw ghetto, but into a small urban park in the cool morning air […] like a park in any city, everything […] too normal, too peaceful to be the site of the unbelievable suffering” (266).