Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

On Thursday, September 23, Mr. C. announces the theme of National History Day 2000: “Turning Points in History.” While leafing through old materials for potential ideas, Liz comes across a 1994 U.S. News and World Report article, “The Other Schindlers,” that described the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved the lives of “2,500 Jewish children”(8)during the Holocaust. Yet when she asks Mr. C. about Sendler, he reveals that has never heard of her and suggests that the “2,500” is probably a typo. But he also reminds Liz that the point of the project is to investigate “unsung heroes” (9).

The next day, Liz tells Mr. C. that she’s going to do her project on Sendler but isn’t sure where to begin; he suggests that she join together with other students and “work on it as a performance piece—sort of like Schindler’s List” (9), which Liz has never heard of. He suggests that she work with Megan Stewart, “a bright and eager freshman who had also signed up for National History Day” (10). To Liz’s surprise, Megan agrees to work with her; however, when Megan notes all of her other activities, Liz is also surprised to realize that she is beginning to feel “a kind of protective jealousy” (10)over the project.

Despite her affinity for Sendler’s story, Liz begins to feel “strong urges to abandon this Irena Sendler thing before it [gets] too big and complicated” (11). While she usually has “no trouble saying ‘no’ to anything else” (11)she doesn’t want to do, something about this project is different for her. She also finds, however, that it is “difficult to stir up actual information” (11). Mr. C. encourages her to call her one lead, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (the JFR), and to watch Schindler’s List to get a feel for what Sendler was doing.

While waiting to use the main office phone to call the JFR, Liz thinks about the term ghetto, a word she doesn’t completely understand—she only knows that it was applied to an area of Warsaw in World War II and that people use it to refer to central Kansas City, where there are “drugs and gangs and murders and a lot of poor Black people” (13). She compares that to Uniontown; she is fairly certain that Uniontown High School has never had a Jewish student or a student of color, but realizes that until that moment, she had never thought about it.

The person at the JFR with whom she needs to speak is not available, but she leaves a message for her asking for information about Irena Sendler. The next day, Stanlee Stahl’s assistant returns her phone call and gives her more information about Sendler, including that she is recognized by Yad Vashem, a memorial in Israel which recognizes “righteous Gentiles—non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews during World War II” (14). The assistant agrees to send materials on Sendler to Liz’s school. After hanging up, Liz realizes that she has many more questions; she also feels certain that “Irena Sendler’s heroism was as remarkable as her own mother’s cowardice was unforgivable” (14).

When the package arrives from the JFR, both Liz and Megan are enraptured by the stories contained inside. Megan finds herself comparing Sendler to her own mother, Debra, after whom she tries to model herself. Megan’s family members are farmers—her mother manages the books and the household, while her father does the field work, with her and her brother Travis pitching in on weekends. One of her chores is to pick rocks, an activity she finds “strangely relaxing”(16), if difficult, as it gives her time to contemplate life.

Shortly after receiving the package, at Mr. C.’s suggestion, Sabrina Coons joins Liz and Megan’s group, at the mild frustration of Liz. Later, Liz watches Schindler’s List and finds herself crying at it, something she doesn’t do.

The three girls all meet together for the first time. Sabrina, who has just moved to the district, lives in the same town as Megan, where “everyone [knows] that she [is] a military kid and that she [has] a dark-skinned sister” (20). Although she tries to keep a low profile, she already knows that her family’s poverty is “no big deal” (21), but her sister’s skin color is. Mr. C. had asked Sabrina to join Megan and Liz, feeling that they needed an older team member to help them through the difficult project. Sabrina’s mother felt it would help her college applications and likewise encouraged her to join. She herself, however, is not particularly excited about it, as she feels “most secure, and most needed” (21) with her family. Additionally, she had already found part-time work at a local restaurant in order to help her family with the bills.

In their meeting, the girls discuss Sendler’s reasoning for saving the children. Liz thinks that maybe it wasn’t very dangerous; Sabrina gently corrects her, telling the group that “if the Nazis had caught her they would have killed her” (21). Megan believes the important thing is that while most people would agree it was the right thing to do, “she did something. She stood up for what she believed in. She saw injustice and she did something to make it right” (22). This strikes a chord with Sabrina: she had protected her sister in the past, but it baffles her that Sendler would have risked her and her family’s lives for “complete strangers” (22). All three girls wonder if they would have been too frightened to do the right thing.

Before they depart for the night, Megan informs Liz and Sabrina that she started writing the play. This makes Liz angry because they still don’t know very much about Sendler. Sabrina tries to mediate, saying they should all go to an upcoming research trip run by the school, after which they can write the play together. A few days later, they agree on a timeline for the project, with a deadline of Thanksgiving, eight weeks from that point.