Fort Scott ? One of the children Irena Sendler worked to save from the Warsaw ghetto during World War II was among the 400 people attending the premier of a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie about Sendler.

Renata Zajdman, one of about 2,500 Jewish children Sendler helped rescue in Poland in the 1940s, saw the film, “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler,” last week at its world premier in Fort Scott.

Zajdman said she still feels Sendler’s influence. “Her goodness during a time of evil, affects how I view the world today,” Zajdman said. “She worked in a time when murder was legal and rescue was a crime.”

The movie, which aired Sunday night, is based on Sendler’s life. Sendler, a social worker in Poland during World War II, led an effort to smuggle more than 2,500 of Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. The children were given new identities and placed with Polish families and in convents.

Sendler kept a hidden record of their birth names and where they were placed buried in jars with the hope that they would someday be reunited with their own families.

In 1999, Sendler’s story led to the creation of the “Life in a Jar” project by a group of students from nearby Uniontown High School. The project is a stage play designed by the students telling Sendler’s story. The play has been performed in the United States and around the world.