By Irene Gut Opdyke

Available in hardcover and paperback.

 

 

 

 

" 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 under a fence."(Irene Gut Opdyke)

 

Book Review

The book In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke is an excellent book that I would recommend to all readers. It is riveting and exhilarating with an amazing plot that is promised to interest all readers of different interests and abilities. It was easy for me, Mary Lindsay Ryan, to follow and kept me turning the page until I finished. If you are a reluctant reader or love to read I definitely recommend this book to you.

 

Book Summary 

The book, In My Hands is a riveting book that is almost impossible to put down. With each page, there is a new obstacle that Irene, the main character who is a Holocaust Rescuer , has to overcome. By overcoming these obstacles she is risking everything, including much more then her own life. Irene starts the book as a regular Polish teenager who is attending nursing school. Then the "storm breaks." The Germans take over Poland putting all the Polish citizens into exile. While in hiding Irene is starved, threatened, even raped. When she finally leaves the Russian side of Poland and goes to the German side she is finally reunited with her family. However, their happy reunion lasts a mere number of days. She is taken away by the Germans and forced to work in a restaurant where she hides behind her Aryan (people with blonde hair and blue eyes to whom the Nazis preferred) mask, and ends up saving twelve Jews that were currently living in ghettos, whose fate rested in the cruel and evil hands of a SS man. Afterwards, Irene joins a German-resistant group called the Partisans, which constantly puts her life in danger. Can Irene save her twelve Jewish friends or will she be killed in the attempt, or worse, her friends will be killed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Irene Gut Opdyke

Irene Gut Opdyke was not born into a resistance group but into a normal Polish family in a small town in Eastern Poland called Koziencice. Her birth date was May 5, 1922. Later on she moved towards the border of Poland near the Germans. In 1934 Adolf Hitler became both Chancellor and President. This worried Irene's family because they had heard the Adolf Hitler wanted to take over Poland and that could endanger her family. Despite her family's arguments, Irene went west to the city of Radom, at age 17, to go to a nursing school. On September 1, 1939 German attacked Poland and quickly invaded the country forcing Irene and her family into exile. Thus, her story begins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewish Ghettos

A ghetto was a cruel, uninhabitable, and unsanitary place to have lived. Jews mainly lived their because of the discrimination of their religion. It can be described as a community of people of Jewish descent in closed and cramped quarters. There was minimal food and a lot of boredom for the young Jewish boys and girls. The reason that Hitler established the ghettos was to have a place for Jews to stay before they were shipped of to extermination camps. Overall, the ghettos were an unforgettable living place to the poor Jewish citizens that were sent there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewish Partisans

Jewish citizens that managed to escape from ghettos and concentration camps formed a group called the Partisans. The Partisans were a Jewish resistance group that's main goal was to help the Jewish citizens defeat the Germans. They would live in heavily wooded forests and would survive with very little tools and supplies. The partisans would live in the woods to keep their identity hidden and keep their family safe. They were mainly faced with the fear of being discovered so they became a nomadic group in order to not be tracked down.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion Questions                                       Page Made By:

Mary Lindsay Ryan

Kathryn DiGiammarino

Peyton Weston

Kaitlin Parthum