)
,t-ttictordinary.
alive. This was the 1950s and the
smuggler of Jews, a defier of the S.S.
Holocaust was not openly dis-
and the Nazis all at once. One's first
cussed," she said.
steps are always small: I had begun by
Like many other survivors of her
hiding food under a fence.
generation, she was ashamed of what
Opdyke eventually took a gigantic
she had been through, "ashamed," she
leap by hiding her entire household
staff of 12 Jews, workers brought
in from a nearby concentration
camp. As she served food to S.S.
officers, she kept a constant vigil
for any news about plans for the
Jews in the camp.
One day she overheard an
officer say that there would be
an action" in the camp in the
next day or two. Survivors were
not likely. But Irene Gut
Opdyke was about to challenge
those odds.
That night she hid her Jewish
friends in a tunnel behind the
bathroom of the major's home
until she could settle them into
the basement of his new villa. She
kept them alive in that basement
for more than a year, and when
her employer found out about
her ruse, he agreed to allow
everyone to stay if Irene would
become his mistress. She did and
to this day has no regrets about
WITH tE0104ttittrt ARMS1'A.0111
her decision.
"God put me in the
right place at the right
time," she said. "I did it
because it was the right
thing to do."
Her crisis of faith actu-
ally occurred much earlier
in the war. "At first," she
said, "I accused God of
doing these terrible
things and I stopped
believing. But then I real-
ized that God gave us free
will. This was particularly
true in my case."
Opdyke eventually
immigrated to the
United States and
worked in New York
City's garment district
before settling in
Southern California. " I
didn't know a word of
English. I was trying to
learn and I was very
concerned about staying
)3
"
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THE TRADITION CONTINUES
Opdyke plants an olive
tree on the Avenue of the
Righteous at Yad Vashem
in Jerusalem.