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In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer |  | Author: Irene Opdyke
Creators: Hope Davis, Jennifer Armstrong
Publisher: Listening Library
Category: Book
Buy New: $49.99
as of 8/1/2010 03:15 MDT details
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 1491354
Format: Unabridged
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 4.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0553526588
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.531809438
EAN: 9780553526585
Publication Date: September 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
When World War II began, Irene Gutowna was a 17-year-old Polish nursing student. Six years later, she writes in this inspiring memoir, "I felt a million years old." In the intervening time she was separated from her family, raped by Russian soldiers, and forced to work in a hotel serving German officers. Sickened by the suffering inflicted on the local Jews, Irene began leaving food under the walls of the ghetto. Soon she was scheming to protect the Jewish workers she supervised at the hotel, and then hiding them in the lavish villa where she served as housekeeper to a German major. When he discovered them in the house, Gutowna became his mistress to protect her friends--later escaping him to join the Polish partisans during the Germans' retreat. The author presents her extraordinary heroism as the inevitable result of small steps taken over time, but her readers will not agree as they consume this thrilling adventure story, which also happens to be a drama of moral choice and courage. Although adults will find Irene's tale moving, it is appropriately published as a young adult book. Her experiences while still in her teens remind adolescents everywhere that their actions count, that the power to make a difference is in their hands. --Wendy Smith
Product Description
Read by Hope Davis
7 hours 6 minutes, 4 cassettes
"You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defier of the SS and the Nazis all at once. One's first steps are always small: I had begun by hiding food under a fence."
Through this intimate and compelling memoir, we are witness to the growth of a hero. Irene Gut was just a girl when the war began: seventeen, a Polish patriot, a student nurse, a good Catholic girl. As the war progressed, the soldiers of two countries stripped her of all she loved—her family, her home, her innocence—but the degradations only strengthened her will.
She began to fight back. Irene was forced to work for the German army, but her blond hair, her blue eyes, and her youth bought her the relatively safe job of waitress in an officer's dining room. She would use this Aryan mask as both a shield and a sword: She picked up snatches of conversation along with the Nazis' dirty dishes and passed the information to Jews in the ghetto. She raided the German Warenhaus for food and blankets. She smuggled people fron the work camp into the forest. And, when she was made the housekeeper of a Nazi major, she successfully hid twelve Jews in the basement of his home until the Germans' defeat.
This young woman was determined to deliver her friends from evil. It was as simple and as impossible as that.
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| Customer Reviews:
the cruelty of people to people June 16, 2010
A. marc Guardiola (dana point, calif)
i have read many books on the holocause and this is one of the best one that I have read this brings the human side of this woman named Irena, and her experiences are so accurate you can almost feel the horror that is going on around but you can nothing to stop the atrocities from one human to another just read The Last Jews in Berlin and that I also wwould recommend to other readers who do not believe of the holocaust---------------Marc Gguardiola
 A Holocaust Rescuer June 9, 2010
Tom (Rochester, NY United States)
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer is the interesting and moving story of Irene Gut Opdyke, a young Polish woman who risked her own life to save Jews during the Nazi occupation. Irene hid 16 Jews in the basement of the house of an aged German officer whom she served as housekeeper. When the officer discovered the subterfuge, he demanded Irene be his mistress in return for the lives of those who were depending on her.
When Irene visited the local Catholic priest to assist her with this moral dilemma, his advise was to turn the Jews over to the Nazi authorities rather than commit adultery; they were, after all, only Jews, he insisted. Irene instead chose to accept the officer's proposal.
Gut Opdyke relates that not all Poles were interested in helping their Jewish neighbors. Anti-Semitism was pervasive in Poland prior to the war and continued during the occupation. The Polish Catholic Church was notoriously anti-Semitic. Although tens of thousands of Catholic Poles were involved in assisting Jews, most were indifferent to the genocide while many viewed it favorably. Rescuers were wary of their Catholic neighbors and quite often kept their activities to themselves.
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer is a tribute, not only to Irene Gut Opdyke, but to all the selfless Holocaust rescuers who risked all for their fellow human beings.
Powerful, Honest, Beautiful June 6, 2010
J. Giron (MD, USA)
I read this book in one sitting because I couldn't stop turning the pages. I wanted to know that Irene would be ok in the end. Irene makes you feel as if you were standing next to her while she was going through very rough times in her life. I just wanted to reach out and hug her and help her. I had moments where my mouth dropped in shock. She made so many sacrifices that I don't think I could ever choose to do. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII and Holocaust stories of survival.
Hard to put down May 1, 2010
hcgolf4fun
This book was very hard to put down. All I can say that this is definitely a "must read"!
Raw and Enlighteing March 10, 2010
Suzy Corse (Mansfield, Pa.)
Irene brought to life the oppression the Polish people were under with the German occupation. My mother-in-law had to flee from Poland to Russia when Germany invaded, but I had no idea how harsh the occupation was until I read Irene's book. I appreciated her honesty about her life and her empathy for the Jewish people. I did not want this book to end. Great read!
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