Irena Gut was born into a Catholic family, in Kozienice, Poland, during the interwar period;[contradictory] she was one of five daughters. The family moved to Radom, where she enrolled at the nursing school before the Nazi-Soviet invasion of 1939. While hiding during the invasion, Russian soldiers discovered her and she was beaten and raped.[3][4] Originally forced to work in a munitions factory during the German occupation, Gut was hired by Wehrmacht Major Eduard Rügemer [de] to work in a kitchen of a hotel that frequently served Nazi officials when he learned she was fluent in German.[4] It was during this period that Gut witnessed a German soldier, in the ghetto near the hotel, rip an infant from its mother's arms and throw the baby head-first onto the ground, presumably killing the child.[5] Horrified, she initially wanted to leave her faith but she came to a realization that people have a choice between doing good or evil and determined that she would help the Jews when the opportunity arose.[5] Knowing she risked her life, Gut secretly took food from the hotel and delivered it to the Tarnopol Ghetto.[6][5]
Gut smuggled Jews out of the ghetto into the surrounding forest and delivered food for them there. Meanwhile, Rügemer asked Gut to work as a housekeeper in his requisitioned villa. She hid 12 Jews in the cellar.[7] They would come out and help her clean the house when he was not around. Rügemer found out about the Jews she was hiding. At risk to all their lives, Rügemer kept Gut's secret, on the condition that she became his mistress.[8] Rügemer fled with the Germans in 1944 ahead of the Russian advance. Gut and several Jews also fled west from Soviet occupied Poland to Allied-occupied Germany. She was put in a Displaced Persons camp, where she met William Opdyke, a United Nations worker from New York City. She emigrated to the United States and married Opdyke shortly thereafter in 1956.[6][3] They had a daughter together. Opdyke died in 1993, while she died in 2003 after complications from hepatitis.[9]
Recognition
After years of silence regarding her wartime experience, in 1975 Opdyke was convinced to speak after hearing a neo-Nazi claim that the Holocaust never occurred.[10] Opdyke began a public speaking career which culminated in her memoirIn My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer.[10] In 1982, she was recognized and honored by Yad Vashem as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.[11] In 2012, Eduard Rügemer was recognized and honored by Yad Vashem as one of the German Righteous Among the Nations.[12]
Synagogue service and papal blessing
On 9 June 1995, Opdyke was honored with a papal blessing from Pope John Paul II at a joint service of Jews and Catholics held at Shir Ha-Ma'alot synagogue in Irvine, California, along with an invitation from Pope John Paul II for her to have an audience with him. The papal blessing and audience with the Pope had been obtained for her by congregant Alan Boinus with the help of Monsignor Joseph Karp of the John Paul II Polish Center Catholic church in Yorba Linda, California. The papal blessing was the first recognition by the Catholic Church of her efforts during the Holocaust. Opdyke said, "This is the greatest gift I can receive for whatever I did in my life."[13]
ABC Primetime Live trip to Israel
In July 1997, Opdyke traveled to Israel with her manager, Alan Boinus, and his wife, publicist Rosalie Boinus, for a television story arranged by the Boinuses for ABC Primetime Live, which aired on 10 June 1998 and re-united Opdyke with Hermann Morks, one of the twelve Jews whose lives she saved.[14][15]
On the trip, Alan Boinus arranged for private meetings with Opdyke at the Knesset with former President and Prime Minister of IsraelShimon Peres and Speaker of the Knesset Dan Tichon. Boinus also arranged for other meetings in Israel for Opdyke with Mordecai Paldiel, Director of the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, and with Holocaust survivor Roman Haller: Roman was the baby Opdyke saved during the war by convincing his parents, Ida and Lazar Haller—two of the twelve Jews that Gut had hidden in Rügemer's cellar—that Ida should carry the child to term after she became pregnant while hiding in the cellar. After the war, when a returning Rügemer was rejected by his wife and children in Nuremberg for being party to saving Jews, the Hallers took him into their own home in Munich.[16] Rügemer became Zeide ('grandfather') to Roman Haller. Haller went on to serve as director of the German office of the Claims Conference, which represents world Jewry in negotiating restitution for the victims of Nazi persecution.[17]
Legacy
Memoir
Opdyke's memoir, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer,[18] was arranged by her then-manager Alan Boinus and published in 1999 through Random House, with co-author Jennifer Armstrong. Alan Boinus and his wife, Rosalie Boinus, among others, are thanked by Opdyke in the acknowledgements.[19]
Irene Gut Opdyke Holocaust Rescuer Foundation
The Irene Gut Opdyke Holocaust Rescuer Foundation was founded in 1997 by Alan and Rosalie Boinus in honor of Opdyke to offer awards, grants, and scholarships to young people inspired by the heroic acts of Irene Gut Opdyke when she was young, so they may likewise stand up to racism, bigotry, and hate.[20] It has since been disbanded.
Play
A play based on the book In My Hands, Irena's Vow, opened on Broadway on 29 March 2009 to mixed reviews.[21] It was written by Dan Gordon and starred Tovah Feldshuh as Irena Gut.[22] It had earlier premiered off-Broadway at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City. After failing to find an audience, the play closed on 28 June 2009.[22][23]
In 1998, Opdyke's story was the subject of legal action and cross-complaint when she sought to regain the motion picture rights to her life story, which she had previously assigned in an option agreement. Copyright attorney Carole Handler represented Opdyke and worked with the parties to reach an agreement. The case was dismissed with prejudice.[25]
Song
In 2012, Katy Carr, a British songwriter with Polish roots, released a song inspired by Opdyke titled "Mała Little Flower"[26] on her album Paszport. On 26 September 2012, Trójka Radio in Poland nominated it as a song of the week.[27]
Works
With coauthor Armstrong, Jennifer (1999). In my hands: Memories of a Holocaust rescuer (1st ed.). New York: Knopf. ISBN9780679891819.
With coauthor Elliot, Jeffrey M. (September 1992). Into the Flames: Life Story of a Righteous Gentile. Borgo Press. ISBN978-0-89370-475-9.
