From the email bag comes another bit of parasitism: the story of Irena Sendler (misspelled in the mail I received, although no doubt an honest mistake). I’ve poked around online a bit, but not found this exact article, nor a more honest version from which it might have been derived, so I’ll reproduce it, sans pictures and formatting.
WHAT A WOMAN
Irena Sender
Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw , Poland
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.
Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids. Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazis broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. Later another politician, Barack Obama, won for SIMPLY BEING THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT. It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, In memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be ‘a myth’, it’s imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.
This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.
Please don’t just delete it.It will only take you a minute to pass this along.
Of course, the shots at Al Gore and Barack Obama are gratuitous. The former Vice President, in using his position to alert the world to an imminent and widespread threat, was certainly a valid candidate for the award (which this mail misleadingly doesn’t note is actually a joint award, the other party being the Panel on Climate Change), and while Irena certainly should have her champions for the award, the committee may have felt it was more important to help save humanity from an imminent scourge than celebrate someone who courageously fought a vanquished scourge. Intriguingly, Snopes.com notes the names of nominees are not actually released for 50 years, yet I see The Independent claims to know at least some of the nominees. A leak, perhaps?
Of course, the award to President Obama is rather harder to defend. I’ve often felt the award was along the lines of “thank God, an Administration not headed by war-lovers!”, which hardly seems adequate. However, the “first black President” remark is quite simply racist; and, in any case, Sendler had passed away at this point, and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously.
And that leads in to the real point of this missive – This is the story of an extraordinary woman, who received many awards over her lifetime for her self-sacrifice, including from both the Vatican and various Jewish organizations. And it was used for base political ends, and, worse yet, to spread the diseases of racism and petty resentments. It’s subtle, it’s vile, and the writer should be ashamed.
