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American Morning

Story of Survival in Poland

Aired June 15, 2001 - 10:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is in Warsaw, Poland this morning, the latest stop on his five nation European trip. He met with the Polish president at the presidential palace. It's the same mansion where Mr. Bush's father attended a state dinner back in 1989. Mr. Bush highlighted Poland's transition from communism to democracy and he says it shows that anything is possible. Among other things, the president is expressing his support for Poland to gain membership in the European Union.

Poland has been the site of great political and personal upheaval, particularly in the early 1940s with German occupation. Millions of Poles were killed, including three million polish Jews. But there are amazing survival stories. One involves a polish women who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 and 1943. And now, some young people are telling Irina Sandler's (ph) story in a play and they're here to talk about it.

We're joined by Janice Underwood, Sabrina Coons, Megan Stewart, Elizabeth Cambers and Norm Conard, who is their teacher. Welcome to all of you. Glad you could come to talk with us.

JANICE UNDERWOOD, STUDENT: Thank you.

SABRINA COONS, STUDENT: Thank you.

MEGAN STEWART, STUDENT: Thank you.

ELIZABETH CAMBERS, STUDENT: Thank you.

KELLEY: Mr. Conard, let me talk with you first. How did you get this? Is it, it has something to do with history, doesn't it?

NORM CONARD, TEACHER: It's a part of the National History Day program and these young ladies developed a performance on the life of Irina Sandler. They found a clipping in an old magazine mentioning her and began to research and found very little on her life and then discovered that not only had she done these incredible things, but she was alive and living in Poland and developed a writing correspondence with her. And, of course, we've gone to Poland now three weeks ago to meet her and many of the survivors.

KELLEY: Tell us about her. Tell us about that meeting.

CONARD: We had an incredibly emotional time. This is an extraordinary woman who went into the Warsaw ghetto in '42 and '43 and talked parents out of their children, saying they would die in the death camps and then adopted them into Polish homes, put the names on lists, buried the lists in jars in her garden so she could spend the rest of her life finding the children and telling them who they really were.

KELLEY: We have some narration of some of her words and we want to play that right now, some words from Irina Sandler.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRINA SANDLER: We were going to the ghetto to pick up those children. There were terrible scenes happening. One mother wanted a child to leave while her father did not. The grandmother wanted, the mother did not. They were asking what was the guarantee? What kind of a guarantee could I give them? I could not even give them a guarantee that I would get past the sentry.

I was escorting the children and infants past the sentry in a very secretive way because I was the only one with coded information regarding 2,500 Jewish children who had been brought by Jagoda (ph) to various hiding places -- in monasteries as well as in private homes. And this pile of information was hidden in my home. Thanks to fortunate circumstances, it never got into Nazi hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLEY: Anybody who's a parent has to feel so deeply, what would you do with your child? Would you give that child up and take this chance or to keep him? I mean what a terrible circumstance to be in. This play is very inspiring. Irina is now 91 and ailing and you're raising funds for her medication with the play. I want each of you girls to tell us what you learned when you met her and how you've been touched and inspired.

Janice, would you go first?

UNDERWOOD: This trip was so amazing. Meeting Irina was just, it was a dream come true. She taught us an incredible amount of knowledge just passed down from her parents before her. They taught her that if someone was drowning in a river, you had to jump in and save them whether you could swim or not. And along with that theory, we believe that we can change people and the way they view others. She's just amazing. We love her to death. And everything she's taught us, we keep sacred in our hearts.

KELLEY: Sabrina, what you have learned? You're the narrator of the play.

COONS: Yes. When we went to meet her it was a wonderful experience. And she just showed me so much, that one person can do something and not worry about the consequences, because she thought it was what everybody was supposed to do not just, she wasn't doing it for the fame or popularity because she felt it in her heart that's what she was supposed to do.

KELLEY: And what an interesting, Sabrina, family connection that you found out. What did you find out on part of this trip?

COONS: I found out that my great grandmother was in one of the camps over there and she was able to escape because her fiance, who was a German guard, helped her get out and they migrated to the United States.

KELLEY: It was interesting to me to read your words when you said, "If my great grandmother hadn't been able to escape, I wouldn't be here."

COONS: Yeah.

KELLEY: Um-hmm. Megan?

STEWART: She's taught us so much. When we met her, she had a 10 page speech written out and it was just amazing to hear her words. And it was so inspiring and very, very humbling when she told us that we were now the farmers sowing her seeds of good, and we were the ones that could carry on her story.

KELLEY: Do you think, Megan, too, that as you notice that maybe one person can make a difference?

STEWART: One person can change the world and with this story we hope to show people that something like this can never happen again.

KELLEY: Elizabeth, how about you? What were you inspired by?

CAMBERS: She's just a wonderful woman and just her herself was very inspiring, just to hear her story and to see really what she really did. But without History Day, we couldn't have been here.

KELLEY: Elizabeth, you play her. You play Irina.

CAMBERS: Yes, I do.

KELLEY: And when you take on that character and you were able to meet her, how has she touched you and your thinking?

CAMBERS: It showed me that I have to accept people for who they are and not for their religion or their background or their color, just, she's just an inspiring woman.

KELLEY: Mr. Conard, this is quite a project that the girls have taken on. How well has it been received?

CONARD: Extremely well across the United States and maybe even more so in Poland. This is the part of the National History Day program across America and as they wrote this performance, Liz played Irina Sandler and Megan was a Mrs. Rossner (ph). And there's a particular scene where Liz talks Megan out of her children. They did that performance in Warsaw in front of 20 children that Irina had saved and other rescuers. And the emotion of it, I think, told the entire story.

KELLEY: Oh, that must have been really something. How inspirational this is. It's so nice to have you all join us and for folks who can see the play, they're very fortunate. Thank you all.

UNDERWOOD: Thank you.

COONS: Thank you.

STEWART: Thank you.

CAMBERS: Thank you.

CONARD: Thank you very much.

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