By Jean Schurman
The tale that was related to the junior high and high school students of Darby on Sept. 3 sounded like something right off the silver screen. But this was a true story, brought to the students by Jeannie Smith, the daughter of Irene Gut Opdyke, a Holocaust survivor. Smith came to Darby at the request of Hope Williams, an English teacher at Darby, and Rope Rennaker, a Darby senior.
Last spring, the question of whether the Holocaust really happened was raised in Steve Gideon’s world history class. Rennaker had read the book, “In My Hands, Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer” by Opdyke and had been moved by the story told. Gideon asked him to give a presentation to the sophomore class. When confronted with doubt about the Holocaust, Rennaker realized a wake up call was needed. Williams and Rennaker spent the summer working out the details with Smith, and Rennaker realized his wish when he introduced Smith to the student body.
Smith began her talk with an exercise that involved the entire audience. Everyone stood up and then as she called out qualifications – everyone with brown hair, everyone that’s ever had a broken bone – they sat down. As those standing became fewer and fewer, Smith told the students that this was how the Jews were systematically separated and eventually killed. By this time hardly a student was moving and all eyes were on Smith.
She told of how people were killed simply because of the color of their hair, or a handicap or because they were Jewish. Smith said there were three main groups in Germany during this time. “There was Hitler and his solders that we call Gestapo, the SS, and there were the people that were murdered – the Jews, the Polish, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, handicapped people.”
Then she asked if anyone had an idea who the third group of people was. After several answers by students, she told them “it’s us. The largest group of all, the bystanders.” Then she related the story of her mom. As she spoke, occasionally utilizing a Polish accent, the students were drawn into the horrific era and hardly made a move throughout the presentation.
Opdyke was not Jewish; she was a Polish Catholic whose family lived close to Germany. After graduation, she went to nursing school. One day, shortly after she arrived at the nursing school, she was walking to class when the sun suddenly disappeared. German aircraft, so many that the sunlight couldn’t penetrate, were flying over. Germany had invaded Poland. The school was turned into a makeshift hospital with all the students working. Two weeks later, Stalin invaded from the east and Poland ceased to exist. Opdyke joined the Polish Underground and went into the forest to escape the Germans and the Russians. One day while being a lookout for other underground soldiers, she was captured by Russian soldiers and beaten, raped and left for dead. She was found by another group of Russian soldiers and taken to a Russian hospital where she was a prisoner after she healed up.
With the students now on the edge of their seats, Smith related how her mother escaped and once again tried to get back to her parents and her four sisters in western Poland. She came upon a town that was deserted. She was so tired she found shelter on the second story of a building and fell asleep. She was awakened by the sound of footsteps. She saw a large group of people being herded down the street by German soldiers. She followed at a distance and was horrified when the soldiers began firing into the crowd, killing men, women, children and even babies.
Opdyke lost faith after this and questioned where God was and why he would allow this to happen. But there was one thought that prevailed in spite of the horror. “God gives us free will, it’s up to us to decide.” Although she would face many more perils, this strength of will prevailed and carried her through the war.
Opdyke was captured by the Germans and forced into hard labor in a German camp. She worked in the laundry and in the cafeteria and soon figured out she was hearing the Germans’ war plans as they ate dinner. There were 12 Jews working in the laundry with her and one day she overheard one of the officers tell the commander that he would have to get more help because the Jews were going to be killed. By this time, the German commander had taken her to be his housekeeper at a villa outside the camp and she was working to get the place ready for him to move in. Opdyke smuggled all 12 out of the camp and into the villa. Opdyke continued a cat-and-mouse game of hiding the Jews in one place in the villa and then another to keep them away from the German soldiers and the commander.
Two of the Jews were married and became pregnant. They worried about how they would be able to keep a baby quiet and came to the conclusion they had to abort their babies. Opdyke argued against this and became so upset, she forgot to do one of the safeguards she had implemented to keep the Jews hidden. The German commander came home and found the Jews. Anyone who was caught harboring a Jew was immediately put to death and the commander knew that he would be killed as well as Opdyke. He told her that he wouldn’t turn her in if she became his mistress. About nine months later, she escaped with her Jewish friends to the forest where they stayed until the end of the war.
After the war’s end, she was interviewed by a United Nations official who, after hearing her story, told her, “the United States would be honored to have you.”
She tried to find her family but all she found out was that her father had been killed. Her mother and sisters had survived but she couldn’t find them. She came to the United States in 1949 and lived in New York City. One day she went to lunch in a crowded diner. There was an empty seat next to her and a man asked her if he could sit there. It turned out he was the same man who had interviewed her for the United Nations, William Opdyke. The couple married and eventually settled in California where she became an interior designer and lived what Smith described as “a beautiful life.”
Smith didn’t know of her mother’s past until she was about 14 years old, when a telemarketer called and asked if they believed the Holocaust really happened. Opdyke had answered the phone and, after almost two hours, came back with tears on her face. Although she had not spoken of her ordeals during the war to anyone, she knew now that she had to speak out.
“All these years I’ve kept silent. I’ve allowed the enemy to win.”
Opdyke told her story and then she wrote the book. She continued to look for her sisters and eventually found them. She was contacted by the couple she had hid and got to know them and their son, the child born in the forest. They had stayed in Germany and one day saw a homeless man that looked familiar. It was the German general who had kept the villa. When he returned home, his wife kicked him out because he had a mistress (Opdyke) and he had no place to live. The couple took him in and let him live with them until he died. Their son called him grandfather.
Smith went on to say that love and forgiveness gave her mother the strength and will to go on even in tough times. This was the message of the book, of the play that has been on Broadway, and of Smith’s speech – that with love and forgiveness, one person can make a difference. Smith related that she didn’t intend on being a speaker but hearing her mother speak in a Watts high school with gang members all around, and watching these big, tough gangsters come up and hug her mother after the speech, made her realize the importance and power of her mother’s story.
The student body was quiet after Smith finished her speech but gradually began asking questions. As the students filed out, one after another came and gave her a hug and thanked her for coming. Although she is a seasoned speaker, Smith was touched by the display and took time to talk to many of them. Rennaker said he was glad to help bring Smith to Darby.