The whole world knows about Oskar Schindler, the World War II industrialist whose story was told in the 1993 film “Schindler’s List.”

And yet relatively few people know the name Irena Sendler, or are familiar with what she did during the Holocaust.

That’s something that a group of Uniontown High School students are working to change.

The method they’re using to accomplish their goal is an 18-minute play called “The Holocaust and Life in a Jar” and a documentary the students made about Sendler’s efforts to save Jews during the war years.

The students have performed “Life in a Jar” in cities and towns across Kansas, Washington, D.C., New York City and Warsaw, Poland. Their presentation, and the story of how it came to be, has captured national and international attention in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television.

Now the students from Uniontown, about two hours south of the Kansas City area, are bringing their play and documentary to Lawrence. “Life in a Jar” will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Central Junior High School, 1400 Mass.

“It’s overwhelming. I never imagined it would go so far. I just thought it would be a one-year project for National History Day,” said Elizabeth Cambers, 18, one of the original group of four girls from Uniontown High School who created “Life in a Jar.”

“I just know that we’ve helped get Irena’s story out. That’s what was needed.”

Risked her life

“Life in a Jar” grew out of a decision made by the four girls in 1999 to focus their national history contest project on the Holocaust.

Searching through books and magazines for a specific idea, a 1994 U.S. News & World Report article caught their attention. It was about the “other Schindlers,” or people who, like the main character in the film “Schindler’s List,” saved Jews in World War II.

On the roster was a woman named Irena Sendler, who was credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Schindler is thought to have rescued about 1,200 people.

Yet it seemed to the girls, and their social studies teacher, Norman Conard, that few people had ever heard of Sendler.

Together, they decided to start a project that would try to uncover the story of this Polish Catholic woman, hoping to learn how and why one person was able to save so many people.

In the course of their research, the girls were thrilled to learn that Sendler was still alive and living in Warsaw. She is now 92.

‘Life in a Jar’ to be presented at junior high“The Holocaust and Life in a Jar” will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Central Junior High School, 1400 Mass.The event, which is suitable for children ages 10 and older and adults, will feature an 18-minute play, a short documentary and a question-and-answer period with the high school students giving the presentation.The event is free, and no tickets or reservations are needed to attend. There will be a jar in which people may leave donations. Any funds that are raised will go to help support Irena Sendler’s care in Poland.Lou and Jane Frydman of Lawrence, and their son, Rick Frydman, a local defense attorney, are the event organizers.The presentation is sponsored by an ad hoc interfaith group of organizations: Canterbury House at Kansas University; Corpus Christi Catholic Church; Ecumenical Christian Ministries at KU; Jewish Community Women; Lawrence Jewish Community Center; Pro-Print, Inc.; St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church; St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center; and Shiray Shabbat.

They traded letters with her, translated by a graduate student, and eventually were able to write a dramatic presentation based upon her life.

During the Holocaust, Sendler was a member of Zegota, a Polish underground group whose purpose was to save Jews from the Germans occupying Poland. At the risk of her life, Sendler personally smuggled 400 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto and helped to arrange the rescue of a total of 2,500 children from certain death.

The children were given new identities and adopted by Christian families, who also faced execution if the Germans found out what they had done.

Sendler wrote down each child’s real name on pieces of paper and buried them in a glass jar next to an apple near her home.

In 1943, Sendler was captured and tortured by the Germans, who broke her arms and legs. They demanded the list of children, but she refused.

Zegota bribed a guard to rescue her, and Sendler went into hiding until the end of the war.

‘Did what I had to do’

The four girls who collaborated on “Life in a Jar” are: Cambers, a senior; Megan Stewart, 17, a senior; Janice Underwood, 17, a junior; and Sabrina Coons, 19, now a sophomore at Fort Scott Community College.

After the girls had performed the play in the Kansas City area, members of the city’s Jewish community were so moved by it that they decided to raise enough money to send the girls and their teacher to Warsaw to meet Sendler.

The group has now made two trips to Poland, where they spent time with Sendler, as well as meeting some of the people whom she saved nearly 60 years ago.

The story behind “Life in a Jar” has been picked up by CNN, USA Today and other media outlets in the United States. The trips the girls made to Poland were also widely covered in that country, including a story by the Associated Press.

What started as a short play has now become an ongoing project involving 17 students at Uniontown High School. They are continuing to research Sendler’s story and share it with wider audiences.

“I hope people will come to see it (in Lawrence). It’s a different experience, not like any other school play you’ve been to,” Cambers said.

Writing “Life in a Jar” has changed the lives of the young Kansans, she added.

“I told Irena, ‘You’re my hero.’ She said, ‘I’m not a hero. I just did what I had to do.'”