"I could have done more"

Irena Sendler was a polish woman who saved more than 2500 children during the holocaust. Knowing that she was doing the right thing, she smuggled children out of a city where jewish families were taken to death camps. She could not take the rest of the family, so she kept a record of the names of the children so that after the war they might be reunited with their families.

When she was eventually caught and tortured, she refused to give up the names the children. Her body was broken, leaving her with scares she would bare for the rest of her life. Finally, after friends bribed a guard she was released. She went right back to her work of saving children.

In 2005 Sendler reflected: "We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. … The opposite is true - I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more."

Sendler died on Monday. She was 98.