ESL 540R with Grace Freeman
Kate Oskooee and Panni Hazegh Aazam
Presentation
Book project ESL 540R
"In my hands"
K: Today we have an interview with, Irene Gut Opdyke and we will discuss over her story in our program.
K: How are you doing dear Irene?
I: Pretty good
K: Welcome to our program
K: When I saw your book for the first time I noticed that it is belonged to the World War II, What promoted you to begin telling your story publicly after almost 50 years of silence?
I: I saw an article in the newspaper where people were saying the Holocaust never happened. It made me very mad. I was there. I decided that I would start speaking out. It's my responsibility, because I survived, to share that with people-to say it is true. If I don't tell the truth, then the truth won't be known.
K: The story is about Irene during World War II and she is the main character in the story. Irene is a very sensitive, kind and forgiving person who couldn't close her eyes on others' problems. Also she helps people as much as she could. She was born into a Catholic family in the eastern city of Poland. Irene lived with her parents and four younger sisters. Irene loved her family, her country that’s why she decided to go to nursing school to learn how to help people. At that time she just was 17 years old.
K: would you please tell us a brief summary of the book and main characters in the story.
Then I became a volunteer to help war wounded for the Poland Army. So I was away at nursing school when the Nazis invaded. I joined the Polish underground and hid in a forest, where Russian soldiers came upon her, beat her and forced her to work in one of their hospitals. I escaped by the help of one of the doctors over there and promised to find her family.
Instead, I was captured at church by the Germans, who put me to work at a munitions plant in Poland. I fainted from the tough work, and an elderly SS officer, Edward Rugemer, smitten with My appearance, helped me attain lighter duties in a German mess hall. I started working in kitchen of the hotel as manager assistant. The manager of the kitchen was Schulz .However he was a German, he was a kind person.
There was a Getto besides the hotel I worked there. Getto is a place that Jews were gathered and secluded according to the order of Adolph Hitler, who wanted the world Jew free. From My new job, I looked directly into a Jewish Getto. I saw a SS soldier grabbed a baby from its mother's arms, throw it skyward and shoot it "like a bird." "That night in my girlfriend's, I threw a tantrum against God, saying, 'I don't believe in you.
When I saw how miserable and hard life of is Jews I decided to to help them by leaving hotels leftovers.
K: what made you help Jews despite you were Christian?
I: At that time Russian army was going to Radom which was on the east of Poland and a new factory was building in Ternopol, We all in the Hotel with the major Rugmer moved to Ternopol .It was a new hotel close to the factory. This feeling started when I was the witness of shooting to a jew in ghetto by German soldier. They were killed just because they were Jewish. Although I was a Christian, but i answered all SS soldiers' inhumanity as a natural human. It was intolerable killing innocent people because of their religion.
K: How were you able to save the Jews in spite of all limitations and death penalty for Jew helpers? I was chosen as supervisor of the laundry of hotel, where all workers were Jews. Because I also worked in the kitchen I could save some food and hide for them in the laundry. Also I reported important information that I heard from SS majors. When I heard that Rokita who was a SS head officer in Ternopol wants to make Ternopole Jew free, I decided to move and hide some of the laundry workers in the jungle. With all dangers were around her, I couldn’t do nothing and God helped her to overcome obstacles one after another. "I was a drop in the ocean" but at least I could do something.
K: did Irene transfer all the Jew workers to the jungle?
Not really in the same time major Rugmer who was a German officer was moving to a villa and chose Irene to be his house keeper. Irene used the villa's basement as a shelter to save her Jew friends while major didn't know any thing above it. One day when I was with two of those Jews upstairs, major catch them together.
Quote:
While I was reading the book, I saw many impressive parts but there was a quotation on page 121 about the conversation between Irene and the workers in the hotel laundry that was more interesting for me. Because it was really effective on Irene .in that part when Irene promised the Jew workers to look after them, Moses Steiner who was one of them said that "you're just a girl. What can you do?" it was a disappointing sentence. I thought it's going to discourage her and stop her but contrary to my prediction; it made her more determined and increased her confidence. Would you tell us how it changed you and gave you new ideas?
I knew that I was a young girl but after mosses told me that first I want to show that it's not true and I have so many abilities. Actually mosses accidentally showed the way to me. I used my weakness as an advantage by going between the German officers and listening their conversation with out drawing a person' attention because I was just a girl.