Have you heard the story about the runner-up for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Irena Sendlerowa
1910-2008: May 12 marked the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena.
During WWII, Irena received permission from the Nazis to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist.
She had an ulterior motive...
Being German, she knew the Nazis' plans for the Jews and smuggled infants out in the bottom of the large tool box she carried. Larger children were placed in a burlap sack in the back of her truck. Also in the back was a dog that she had trained to bark each time the Nazi guards allowed her out of the ghetto and back in.
The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and its barking covered any noise made by the infants and small children. Irena managed to smuggle out approximately 2,500* children before she was finally caught... on 20 October 1943, she was arrested at her home. She was taken to the notorious Gestapo headquarters in central Warsaw and tortured. During the sessions they broke her legs and feet but she refused to reveal any names.
"I still carry the marks on my body of what those 'German supermen' did to me then. I was sentenced to death" Irena Stated
But her colleagues "managed to foil the plan after they bribed a Polish-speaking German officer with a large backpack full of dollars. On the drive to her execution site the officer knocked her unconscious. He stopped the car and left her bleeding on the roadside...The following day, unaware the execution had not taken place, the German authorities put up posters all over the city announcing she had been shot..."
Irena kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard.After the war, she tried to locate any parents who may have survived so she might reunite the child with its family. Most, of course, did not survive the Holocaust, and the vast majority of the surviving children were placed in foster homes or adopted.
Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but she lost to Al Gore, who won the award for presenting a slide show on Global Warming. Heartwarming, isn't it???
Oh Al Gore, its not your fault that you won. You did do a good thing in telling everyone how hot it is outside. Its not your fault that you beat out a women that had her Arms and legs broken to save 2500 helpless little children in the most wretched war of recent memory... Al, if you actually did deserve that award, you would drop that Nobel Peace prize off at the Museum at Auschwitz, dedicate it to Irena and get that burden off your shoulders, who wants to be the person that steals the award from one of the most amazing humans that ever lived? At this point... no one thinks you deserve it. -Sincerely Samuel
MY Question is: Who awards "The Nobel Peace prize"?? They have obviously switched judges since Mother Tereasa,Nelson Mandela and MLK received the award.
* Oscar Schindler saved 1200
*Thanks Rita for bringing this to my attention.
2 comments:
The final prize is determined by a committee selected by the Norwegian Legislature (or whatever they call it). Regardless of whether Al Gore deserved it or not - it seems to me that the Nobel Peace Committee had 65 years to select her the prize. They didn't.
I also take issue with that there are even runner ups. Thousands of people are potentially nominated every year. There are no "runner-ups" or "second-place". It annoys me to no end when I see "Nobel [x] Nominated" when reading somebody's "credentials". I can be nominated - it makes not a single lick of difference.
Perhaps you should remind someone who "has been nominated" for a Nobel prize that The statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominations, whether publicly or privately, for 50 years. The restriction concerns the nominees and nominators, as well as investigations and opinions related to the award of a prize. click here.
Post a Comment