Few have led a life as remarkable as that of Irena Kirkland, widow of the late AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and a staunch supporter of democracy and workers' rights. Mrs. Kirkland passed away this morning.

As a Jew in Prague during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, she was thrown out of school, transported along with her twin sister Alena to Auschwitz and narrowly escaped the gas chambers. A few years later, the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia expelled her from the university, arrested her and interrogated her in the presence of a Soviet officer. Soon afterwards, however, she was allowed to immigrate to Israel.

Later, after living in London and Paris, she moved to the United States, where she married Lane Kirkland in 1973. Over the next 22 years, during her husband's service to the union movement as secretary-treasurer and then president of the AFL-CIO, she was a familiar figure throughout the movement and gave it her full support. After his death, she was instrumental in the creation of the National Labor College's Lane Kirkland Center, which opened its doors late last year as "America's union hall."

Irena Kirkland was a compelling figure in her own right in the struggle against authoritarianism in every form. The Kirkland home was described as "a nerve center for the freedom struggle," with visitors ranging from the Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn to the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani. She was also a strong advocate for refugees around the world—a cause on which she could speak from experience—and served on the board of the International Rescue Committee.

Even though she was a witness to some of the greatest atrocities in human history, Irena Kirkland's commitment to human dignity and freedom never wavered. Everyone who knew her as a friend and colleague in some of the noblest struggles of this generation will miss her deeply.

Contact Steve Smith, 202-637-5018