Born into a Polish Catholic family in 1918, Irena Gut (which aptly means “good” in German) Opdyke was training to be a nurse when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Because she was fluent in German, Eduard Rügemer, a high ranking Nazi officer, hired her to be the housekeeper at his villa. Unbenownst to him, she was determined to help Jews, because, as her daughter Jeannie related, her mother firmly believed that “We are all connected and part of one human family; we are our brother’s keeper.” When Irene overheard that the Gestapo was about to empty the local Jewish ghetto, she warned residents, and made the incredibly brave decision to hide 12 Jews she had worked with in the villa cellar. They remained a secret for eight months, when Rügemer discovered them. He agreed to keep the secret – if she would become his mistress. Unbelievably, she did. All of the Jews survived. She also purloined food and supplies that she would deliver to about 150 Polish partisans and Jews hiding in a nearby forest. After the war, she immigrated to the U.S., became a citizen, married Walter Opdyke and settled in Yorba Linda with her husband and daughter in the early 1960s. She was silent for many years about her experience, but in 1974, when she heard the neo-Nazi claim that the Holocaust never occurred, she decided it was time to speak up. She became a tireless advocate for the truth, recounting her story in thousands of synagogues, churches and schools throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, and spent the last two decades of her life teaching thousands of Orange County schoolchildren that one person really can make a difference. “She became a moral compass to tens of thousands of children,” said Rabbi Chaim Asa of Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton. Recognized as a “Righteous Gentile” by Yad Vashem in 1982, she was honored with a papal blessing from Pope John Paul II at a joint service of Jews and Catholics held at Shir Ha-Ma’alot synagogue in Irvine in 1995. Although she passed in 2003 at 85 years of age, we continue to honor her bravery and heroism in the face of evil.
Dalia Taft, Director of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, highlights images from the archives every month. For more information, please visit https://www.jccoc.org/Pages/Oc-Jewish-Historical-Society. You can also contact Dalia at Daliat@jccoc.org or at (949) 435-3400, Ext. 360. The Orange County Jewish Historical Society is a program of the Merage Jewish Community Center and is funded by the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County.