“Shipman dazzles in this historical tour-de-force based on the real-life story of WWII Polish resistance fighter Irena Sendler . . . spellbinding.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)Based on the gripping true story of an unlikely Polish resistance fighter who helped save thousands of Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, bestselling author James D. Shipman’s Irena’s War is … author James D. Shipman’s Irena’s War is a heart-pounding novel of courage in action, helmed by an extraordinary and unforgettable protagonist.
September 1939: The conquering Nazis swarm through Warsaw as social worker Irena Sendler watches in dread from her apartment window. Already, the city’s poor go hungry. Irena wonders how she will continue to deliver food and supplies to those who need it most, including the forbidden Jews. The answer comes unexpectedly.
Dragged from her home in the night, Irena is brought before a Gestapo agent, Klaus Rein, who offers her a position running the city’s soup kitchens, all to maintain the illusion of order. Though loath to be working under the Germans, Irena learns there are ways to defy her new employer—including forging documents so that Jewish families receive food intended for Aryans. As Irena grows bolder, her interactions with Klaus become more fraught and perilous.
Klaus is unable to prove his suspicions against Irena—yet. But once Warsaw’s half-million Jews are confined to the ghetto, awaiting slow starvation or the death camps, Irena realizes that providing food is no longer enough. Recruited by the underground Polish resistance organization Zegota, she carries out an audacious scheme to rescue Jewish children. One by one, they are smuggled out in baskets and garbage carts, or led through dank sewers to safety—every success raising Klaus’s ire. Determined to quell the uprising, he draws Irena into a cat-and-mouse game that will test her in every way—and where the slightest misstep could mean not just her own death, but the slaughter of those innocents she is so desperate to save.
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I enjoy reading historical fiction and it’s an added bonus for me if the story is based on real people. This novel is an interesting look at Irena Sendler and the heroic efforts that she took to help the people in the Warsaw Ghetto and helped to save thousands of children from certain death.
Irena’s War begins in September, 1939, when the Nazis swarm into Warsaw and take over Poland. Before the war started, she was a social worker whose main job was to distribute food to the people of Warsaw. She had a network of farmers who provided fresh food and volunteers who worked in the soup kitchens. She was afraid that her efforts to feed the people would come to an end when the war started and was surprised to be offered a job by the Germans to keep working to provide food to the poor. She’s not sure if she wants to work for the Germans but decides that keeping the Polish people fed is her main task and decides to accept the job. She’s instructed not to provide food for Jewish people but she soon learns how to forge documents so that the Jewish people can receive food. When she is no longer able to help those who need it most, she volunteers to work as a health care person in the Ghetto. She begins to work with the Resistance and starts helping children escape. She brings them out in garbage bins and she brings them out through the sewers and overall she was successful in saving over 2,500 children from the ghetto working with the Polish resistance. When she is captured by the Germans, she goes through extreme torture as they try to get her to name the people in the resistance but even with the inhumane treatment, she managed to give them false information and was able to escape.
Irena Sendler was a strong woman who was able to help many during the War. In 1965, Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial organization, named Sendler as Righteous Among the Nations for her work saving Jewish children. In 2003, Poland honored her with its Order of the White Eagle. In 2008, Sendler was nominated for (but did not win) a Nobel Peace Prize. She died in 2008.
James Shipman is a new author for me and after reading Irena’s War, I plan to read some of his earlier books. If you enjoy reading about strong women who work to change their world, this is a book that you don’t want to miss.
A story of bravery love and sadness Love it
This was a hard story to me. Set in Warsaw, Poland during WWII. Irene has friends that are Jews. When the Germans first come, she believes all will be well. Soon enough, she finds out she is wrong. First there isn’t enough food to go around. Then if you are a Jew, you aren’t allowed hardly anything to eat.
Irene works as a social worker as distributor of food. She decides to help the Jewish people. The only thing is, will she survive. How far will she go to help them?
This is a historical fiction based on true events. It’s a very eye opening book. I highly recommend it if you like books about WWII. Beware though, some things are hard to comprehend, or at least they were for me.
This is a fascinating book about wartime in Poland. An amazing book I couldn’t put down.
An amazing heroine whose life is an inspiration to us all. She risked her life to save Jews in a time of terrible danger and fear.
Very interesting story line
If this period in time is an interest. Read this novel
Hard to put down and even harder when you realize it’s a true story. Amazing. They need to make a movie about her.
quite deep and meaningful
Irena’s War is a fast paced story based on Polish resistance fighter Irena Sendler. This is a book that will blow you away.
This will be among one of the best Holocaust fiction I have read so far. In a gripping well researched story with impeccable pacing, you will find this book hard to put down.
I really enjoyed this one.
I was gripped by this book and awed by Irena’s courage, determination and amazing commitment. She was truly an amazing woman. The lessons from WW II must never be forgotten lest we repeat the horrors of dictatorship.
Irena’s War by James D. Shipman is an excellent WWII historical fiction novel that is actually based on the heroics of Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who refused to give up and give in to the Germans that invaded and murdered her fellow Polish citizens after the occupation of Warsaw and Poland. Irena chose to work undercover with the Polish resistance to help bring food and supplies to starving citizens and eventually help rescue and smuggle approximately 2500 Jewish children to safety instead of a certain death. The fascinating aspect is that she did all of this while under the guise of working her “usual job” in social services.
This book was unique, fascinating, suspenseful, and awe-inspiring. Irena may have been an imperfect, flawed, and challenging woman, but she was strong, intelligent, fiery, brave, and wonderful in the way that she selflessly risked all to save and care for others. I loved learning more about her in the author’s afterward that described which characters in the book were real, and which were created in a way to aid to the storyline.
I did enjoy how alternating points of view between Irene and an SS officer was presented. While he did not actually exist, the author did a great job creating an authenticity that made this book so harrowing and sometimes sinister. Being able to be placed into the mind of someone so evil, yet human, was striking and unforgettable.
This book will stick with me long after, as it really brings home another story of one of the many wonderful souls that risked it all to help others and to help right the wrongs during these atrocities.
5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.