Daughter shares ‘A Righteous Gentile’s Story’
The young Polish Catholic woman had seen Nazi Germany’s horrific treatment of Jews firsthand.
She watched as a Jewish infant was plucked from its mother’s arms, tossed into the sky and shot down by a Nazi soldier.
She saw a Jewish family and their Polish rescuers publicly hanged, with the children killed first so that their parents would be forced to see their offspring’s gruesome deaths.
Irene Gut Opdyke decided to fight against such atrocities.
She became a one-woman force for the Polish resistance and saved 12 Jews from the Nazis, her daughter, Jeannie Opdyke Smith, recently told a metro-area crowd.
“The power of one is incredible throughout history. We just don’t realize how much one person can do, even a simple kindness,” Smith said.
She shared her mother’s story as guest speaker at a brunch entitled “A Courage to Care: A Righteous Gentile’s Story” hosted on Tuesday by the women’s division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City. About 190 people attended the event at the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club.
A highlight of the brunch was the federation’s tribute to Nina Packman, who has served as a volunteer for the federation, as well as numerous other community organizations, including the Post Adjudication Review Board for the state juvenile court system. Packman, wife of Temple B’nai Israel rabbi emeritus David Packman, also worked as a social worker at Mercy Hospice for 25 years.
Smith told those gathered that she was unaware of her mother’s amazing and harrowing Holocaust experience until she was 14 years old and heard the older woman discussing it with someone over the telephone.
Smith said her mother’s experiences started out with a simple desire to do the right thing, even if she had to do it alone. Smith said after Germany invaded Poland, her mother was forced to work for Nazis by serving meals and overseeing a laundry room. One day, she learned that 12 Jewish workers were soon to be slaughtered, but she helped them escape.
Opdyke managed to keep the same group together in the basement of a house where she was sent to work as a Nazi leader’s housekeeper. Smith said the Nazi leader eventually learned her mother’s secret, but the Polish woman was able to buy his silence at great personal cost.
Eventually, Opdyke’s experiences became widely known. Opdyke, who died in 2003, received international recognition for her heroism from a variety of groups. She was recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1982 by the Israeli Holocaust Commission. The title is given to those who risked their lives by hiding and saving Jews during the Holocaust.
Opdyke also was presented with the Israel Medal of Honor, Israel’s highest tribute, in a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and her story is also part of a permanent exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The Vatican also gave her a special commendation and she was presented the Anti-Defamation League’s Courage to Care award posthumously in 2008.
Opdyke shared her story in her book, “In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer,” written with Jennifer Armstrong.
In a nice coincidence, Smith learned that her mother had been a guest speaker for the Oklahoma City Jewish Federation 25 years ago.
She said she shares her mother’s Holocaust experiences to point out what one person can do to stand against evil.
“I do this because history keeps repeating itself, so the stories have to keep being told,” Smith said.
“We can’t get comfortable in our own lives. We can’t wait for the ‘thems’ out there to do something. It’s a call for all of us to stand against hate.”
Story shared at schools
Roberta Clark, the Jewish Federation’s executive director, said it was an honor to bring Smith to Oklahoma City. She said Smith likes to speak to young students so the federation connected her with Westmoore High School in Moore and Bishop McGuinness High School where she shared her mother’s story and the “power of one” to the next generation.
Smith said she loved speaking to Jewish groups all across the country, but she felt it was important to speak to the broader community, as well.
“About 95 percent of my audiences are Jewish, but I truly wish I could get other groups to hear it because I don’t think that anything is going to change until we do that,” she said.