Irene+Opdyke

=__** Early Life **__= In May of 1922, Irene Opdyke was born in Kozienice, Poland into a Catholic family. She says that “...My mother was such a strong influence...She never turned anyone from her doorstep. We five girls were always bringing in animals which needed our help”(Opdyke, Frontline) =__**Resistance Expiriance**__= When she was eighteen, she began working as a nurse for the Polish army. One night she and other fellow nurses were kidnapped by Russians who had previously entered Poland. Three soldiers beat her and she found herself “on a truck to a Russian hospital”(Opdyke, Frontline). After she was traded with Poland during an exchange, Opdyke began to work in a factory that “supplied the German front” (Opdyke, Frontline). Because of the fumes in the factory, she fainted in front of Major Edward Rugemer. She was asked by him to work in a kitchen feeding Germans.

While she was running an errand, she wandered into a ghetto. ”There were all kinds of people, pregnant women, children screaming "Mama, Mama!" Then …[she] saw a woman with an infant in her arms. With one movement of his hand, the SS man pulled the baby away and threw it to the ground”(Opdyke, Frontline). Later on, the Major was transferred to another city in Poland where she worked in a laundry room with Jews. They had become good friends, and she got to know them well. When she overheard the plans for an entire ghetto, Opdyke was worried about her new friends. “Then a miracle happened. About three days later[,] the major called me [Irene] and said,’I have a villa and I want you to be my housekeeper’.” (Opdyke, Frontline).

Opdyke and her new friends came with her to the villa. While the major was upstairs they were huddled below, and when he was downstairs the were above. Even though they seemed out of the storm, the next big problem was coming. A couple was getting ready for a child. They told her that they would give the child up because it would make too much noise. “Then one day in the middle of the marketplace they hanged a Polish couple and their two children and a Jewish couple with their child,” testified Opdyke. She and her friends were talking in the kitchen, but Opdyke had left the key that protected them from Major Rugemer’s unexpected arrival in the lock.

“...He was screaming at me,’I trusted you. How could you do this behind my back, in my own house? How? Why?” (opdyke, Frontline). She was down on her knees begging for his forgiveness and telling him that they were her friends. The major told her he needed to think; afterwards he would give her his choice. A while later he told her that he would keep her secret if she was voluntarily his. All of a sudden, she had flashbacks of the Russians raping her. But the lives of twelve people were in her hands. “I won’t tell you it was easy”, Opdyke recalled.For several months this was going on; the Germans started to lose. When everybody left the home, they escaped through the nearby forest. On March 4,1944, the little baby was born in freedom. He was given the name Roman Heller. =__**Honors and Awards**__= Irene Opdyke holds many honors. among these are the Israel meadal of Honor, she was name Righteous among the Nations, the Commander’s Cross, and the Courage to Care award. The later two were received posthumously by Jeanie Smith, her only child.(Smith, Opdyke) =**__What I Learned__**= I learned though all of the research that this woman was not held paralyzed by her fears when trouble tried to strike her down. For this she should and already is named a hero. Thanks to her, we can say people stood up to Nazi Germany’s malevolent schemes.



Works Cited "Irene Opdyke ,." Irene Opdyke ,. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.  "Rescuers: Irene Opdyke." PBS. PBS. Web. 8 Dec. 2014. "Resilience Training International - Stories of Resilience." Resilience Training International - Stories of Resilience. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.

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