Mr. Speaker, today I pay tribute to a remarkable woman who touched the lives of over 2,500 people while unselfishly risking her own. At the age of 98 Irena Sendler passed away yesterday in Warsaw, Poland.
During World War II Irena led an underground Polish group that rescued 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust. She was honoured for her bravery as the 2003 winner of the Jan Karski award for valour and courage and then was nominated for the Nobel peace prize.
Last month the Prime Minister visited Auschwitz. In the museum's book of remembrance he wrote:
We are witness here to the vestiges of unspeakable cruelty, horror and death. Let us never forget these things and work always to prevent their repetition.
On behalf of the Government of Canada, I offer my deepest condolences to Irena Sendler's family and to all who were forever impacted by her generosity and selflessness.