I COMMENT I
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RABBI HAROLD SCHULWEIS
Special to the Jewish News
Join us for a fabulous
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647-5540
DEA FARRAH
MSW, ACSW
BINGHAM CENTER, BIRMINGHAM
he call came from
Esther Brenner, a co-
ordinator of the West
Coast region of the United
States Holocaust Memorial
Museum. Had I heard of the
predicament in which Irene
Opdyke found herself?
Her husband, Bill, was af-
flicted with Alzheimer's
disease, and Irene had neither
the resources, skills or place to
take care of her husband.
Could I, as founding chairman
of the Jewish Foundation for
Christian Rescuers, be of help?
I knew Irene Opdyke. Now
in her late 60s, Irene is a
Catholic Polish woman who in
her teens was responsible for
protecting, hiding, feeding and
clothing 12 Jews caught in the
murderous vise of Nazis in a
Polish village.
At the age of 19, Irene had
witnessed a death march
through the town — Jews
pushed and beaten, paraded
by the Nazis to their
slaughter.
She would never forget the
callous shootings of shivering
Jewish men, women and
children plowed into a shallow
grave. In Irene's words, "The
earth was heaving with the
breath of those who were
buried alive."
She took a silent oath to
save whomever she could from
that unspeakable fate. Forced
to serve Nazi officers as a ser-
vant in the village of Tarnopol,
she came to know 12 Jews,
former businessmen, nurses, a
medical student, a lawyer, all
of whom were consigned by
the Nazis to the most, menial
work.
Irene befriended them, pass-
ed information about Nazi
plans to raid the ghetto along
to the 12, who, in turn,
transmitted the murderous
designs to the ghetto. Because
of this network of information,
some Jews were able to escape
to the forests; others were able
to hide outside Janowka, near
Tarnopol.
When Irene learned of the
planned liquidation of the
ghetto, she hid "her Jews" in
a cellar, knowing full well the
Harold M. Schulweis, in
addition to serving as senior
rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom
Congregation in Encino, Calif,
is founding chairman of the
Jewish Foundation for
Christian Rescuers. This
article was originally printed
in The Jewish Journal of
Greater Los Angeles.
implications of her act.
It was no small risk to help
Jews. Posters appeared in the
town announcing, "This is a
Jew-free town. Anyone. help-
ing Jews escape will be subject
to death."
Given the history of anti-
Semitism in Poland, it is all
the more remarkable that
there were Christian Poles
who risked life and limb to the
rescue Jews. Knowledge of the
heroism and fate of the
rescuers is slowly mounting.
On Jan. 19, 1943, the SS ex-
ecuted 15 Poles in the village
of Wierbicz. All were members
of the families who saved
Jews. One of those 15 souls
was a 2-year-old child.
Ninety-six Polish men were
murdered by the Germans in
the village of Biala, for hiding
and feeding Jews.
It is remarkable
that Christian
Poles risked life
and limb to rescue
Jews.
In Stary Ciepielow, the SS
pushed 23 Poles — men,
women, children and infants
— into a barn and burned it
down with all of them inside,
for their violation of the edict
proscribing protection of Jews.
I myself had come to know
the moral heroism of a Polish
couple, Alex and Mela Roslan,
who made themselves "as a
hiding place from the wind
and shelter from the tempest"
(Isaiah 32). At risk of their
lives, the Roslans bribed and
evaded the relentless pursuit
of the Nazi predators and
Polish informers. They suc-
cessfully rescued two of three
Jewish brothers, who both
now live in Israel.
After the call from the
Holocaust Memorial Museum
office, I contacted Irene and
found her in a state of agita-
tion. She felt alone, helpless
and knew no place that could
take care of her husband.
I then contacted Sheldon
Blumenthal, executive direc-
tor of the Jewish Homes for
the Aging in Reseda, Calif.,
requesting the admission of
Bill Opdyke.
He explained some of the
difficulties involved in such a
decision. The Opdykes were
not residents of the County of
Los Angeles; the Homes was
critically short of beds in the
intensive- care unit; the
Homes was a sectarian
institution.
I told him who Irene Opdyke
was and what she had done in