'Female Schindler' dies in Poland

WARSAW, Poland, May 12 (UPI) -- Irene Sendler, who saved thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II, has died in her native Poland at the age of 98.

Known to many as the "female Schindler," she donned a Star of David armband and smuggled children and babies out of the Warsaw ghetto, The Telegraph (Britain) reported Monday.

Sendler was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and condemned to death for her activities.

She was saved by members of a secret organization that managed to bribe a prison guard so she could escape.

Last year Poland's parliament officially honored Sendler as a national heroine in ceremonies that featured many of the children she rescued.

Though too frail to attend, Sendler sent a letter to the gathering.

"Every child saved with my help is justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory," the letter read. "Over a half-century has passed since the Holocaust, but its specter still hangs over the world."