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`During World War II, Adolf Hitler devised the “Final Solution” that would result in the extermination of about six million Jewish, Roma, Polish, handicapped and other people of minorities. This holocaust was a bleak and tragic period in history that will forever weigh heavily on the hearts and souls of those that survived and the families of those that did not. From April 14 to April 16, Millersville University hosted the 30th Annual Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, sponsored by Amnesty International, Millersville Chapter and the Millersville University History Club.
On Thursday, the production of “Only A Girl” was presented at 7 p.m. in the Bolger Conference Center. This play, presented by Lightkeeper Productions, was based on the true story of Irene Gut Opdyke. Opdyke was a Holocaust rescuer, who saved hundreds of lives during World War II at the age of seventeen. The play incorporated real interviews with Irene herself as well as visited memories, film images, and original music. The play carried the audience through Irene’s childhood in pre-war Poland to her time in the Polish Resistance and onward.
Dr. Glazier of the Anthropology department introduced the small cast of two who were to represent Irene Gut Opdyke, her husband, family, and friends she made throughout her life. At the age of 16, Irene acquired a job with the Red Cross and later dreamed of becoming a nurse, which led her to travel to the Ukraine to receive training in the spring of 1939. During this time, changes were occurring in Poland such as the persecution of the Jewish population and the growing threat of war. In the summer, Irene returned home to find that the attacks on the Jewish population had increased and was begged by her family to not return to her schooling. In August of the same year, she left again for the Ukraine. On September 1, 1939 Poland was invaded by Germany and many of the cities were evacuated. Upon her return, Irene was unable to find her family.
She volunteered to help the Polish citizens that were injured and joined the Polish Resistance. In the winter of 1940, Irene Gut (as this was her name at the time) was beaten and taken by Russian soldiers to a Russian hospital to be put to work. Later, she was able to escape the doctor under whom she worked. After a year in hiding, she was able to locate her family.
Six months later, German soldiers came to Irene’s home and forced her father to leave with them and work in a ceramics factory. Her mother and younger sisters left as well and Irene was made to stay at home with her sister Jeanina. One morning, Irene attended church alone and the church was later surrounded by German soldiers. The congregation was divided in half. Irene was forced to watch as the soldiers shot and killed half of the people. She and the other half were then forced to work in an ammunition factory in Germany. When a German officer found that she could speak German, she was forced to translate for his cook. During this period of her life, Irene’s job was near a Jewish ghetto, fenced off from the rest of the city. She felt compelled to help these people and proceeded to pass food to them under the fence every day, until the ghetto was deported and destroyed.
In January 1942, Irene was moved to another job under the same German officer in a hotel in the Ukraine. Here, she was to serve meals and was in charge of the Jewish laundry workers in the basement. She vowed that she would help them escape and survive.
Using her position and her ability to speak German, she listened to the plans of the officers and found that another extermination of the Jewish population was planned for June. With great courage and immense faith, Irene transported all of the Jewish laundry workers and others to a safe haven which was right under the German officers’ noses.
Meanwhile, she continued to send food and supplies to Jewish people finding refuge in the Ukranian forest. Finally, in 1944, the Russian army was able to push the Germans out of the Ukraine and the war ended a couple of months later.
After the war, Irene Gut joined the Polish Resistance again and found that her father and mother were both killed by the Germans. At this time, she could not find information on her sisters. She was then able to acquire papers, change her name and dye her hair for her protection. Irene then moved to America where she married and became Irene Gut Opdyke.
Irene became a United States citizen in 1949 and gave talks throughout her life of her plight and of the hundreds of people that she helped save. In 1985, Irene was finally able to reunite with her sisters in a free Poland. Irene Gut Opdyke died in 2003 and is honored in the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. on the Wall of Remembrance. “Only A Girl” celebrated the courage, faith, and love of a Holocaust survivor and rescuer, and allowed Irene Gut Opdyke’s voice to be perpetuated.