‘Irena’sVow’

by David Weiss and Michael Guggenheim

‘Irena’s Vow,” a play starring the acclaimed Jewish actress Tovah Feldshuh, is a true story about a righteous gentile, Irena Gut Opdyke. During World War II, Irena risked her life to hide 11 Jewish people in the cellar of an SS major’s home where she worked as a housekeeper. Riveting and inspiring, the play sheds new light on an unrecognized story of insurmountable courage and remarkable bravery.
The play begins with an aged Irena entering an auditorium to address a class of high school students about the Holocaust. The year is 1988 and Irena passionately implores students to remember the Holocaust, emphasizing the dwindling number of witnesses still alive to offer their testimony. Irena then proceeds to tell her story, taking the audience back

to the streets of Poland circa 1940 and recounting the Nazi horrors that overtook her life at the young age of 18.

With the 1939 German invasion of Poland, Irena fled east with a Polish military unit to work as a nurse. Her unit was soon overrun by Soviets and Irena was taken into captivity by Russian soldiers who brutally raped and beat her. “I had never been unchaperoned with a boy before that. That was my first date,” she grimly notes. That was the first of many shocking and powerful memories, Irena proceeds to take the audience further into her experiences.

After being captured by the Nazis she was sent to work for the SS. As Jewish women and children are ruthlessly slaughtered on the streets of occupied Poland, she watches helplessly. Ashamed for not saving their lives, she promises herself that she will never stand idly by again. Irena’s vow is thus made.
While working as a laundress in charge of several Jewish prisoners, Irena learns that they will soon be executed. Irena sneaks these Jews into the cellar of a mansion in which she worked as a housekeeper. The home belonged to a respected SS major who never knew of the hidden Jews.

For over a year, Irena keeps them hidden and is constantly tested. Each day she is under constant stress of possible SS raids. In a particularly riveting scene, Irena is faced with the task of procuring items for performing an abortion for one of the Jewish women — an act that is against her Catholic faith. She is confronted with conflicting viewpoints: should she sacrifice the baby to protect the others or should she protect the unborn child? She convinces the mother to keep the baby, proclaiming that the child is a symbol of hope. This ties in well with the overarching theme of courage and choosing between what is easy and what is right.

At the conclusion of the performance, Irena’s daughter Jeannie Opdyke Smith came out to answer questions about her mother. Jeannie explained that Irena originally did not have any intentions of telling her story to the world. She broke her silence only after she was confronted with the advent of Holocaust denial. This helped Irena form the resolve to write her book, “In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer,” published in 2004, on which this play is based.

Holocaust denial is a problem that seems to only grow as time goes on and as those who witnessed what happened pass away. The only way to combat this festering problem is to deal with it head-on in all forms of media.

A deep and profound impact on the viewer is certainly made by using the stage rather than the screen. Seeing the harsh German brutality performed live poignantly transforms the experience into almost a firsthand witnessing of what happened. By using the theater and this powerful story as a way to talk about the Holocaust, the current generation is being reached in a more accessible platform than movies and the news, which is often perceived as stuffy and overly paternalistic to young people.

Irena Gut Opdyke died in 2003. She received numerous awards for her bravery, most notably the “Righteous Among the Nations” award from Yad Vashem.

Feldshuh delivers a powerful and moving performance that truly captures the spirit of a woman who defiantly refused to stand idly by as innocent people were killed. The play runs through Sept. 6 at the Walter Kerr Theater in Manhattan.

David Weiss and Michael Guggenheim are sophomores at the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA) in Manhattan.

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Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization