:: In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
Written by Irene Gut Opdyke as told to Jennifer Armstrong
©2001 Alfred A. Knof, Inc.

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In September, 1939 Irene Gut was a teenager in Poland studying to become a nurse. She was on her way to the hospital when the German blitzkrieg began dropping bombs on her native land, shattering her dreams and separating her from her family. Later ordered to work as a housekeeper for an officer of the Third Reich, Irene Gut found herself fighting back in a unique and brave manner--by hiding Jews inside the very house she was working and living in. For the first time ever, after years of suppressing the haunting memories and images of man's cruel injustices towards his fellow man, here is her story, told in wonderfully simple and human terms. More than the courageous tale of her one-woman effort to save the lives of those around her, In My Hands is the story of humankind's potential for altruism

and brotherhood--made all the more valiant by the risks Irene Gut took, risks that could well have ended in her own execution. One of the few non-Jews to be awarded the Israeli Medal of Honor by Yad Vashem Study Center and Memorial to the Holocaust, Irene Gut Opdyke's story is a remarkable eyewitness account of life in Eastern Europe during the middle of the twentieth century: of its poignancy as well as its pain, of its loves as well as its losses. In My Hands chronicles the forced growth of one girl from teenager to adult, and through her eyes we see the gruesomeness of the Holocaust and its effect on people on both sides of the war. That Irene Gut Opdyke survived at all, and risked her life so that other could survive it, is a testament to a bravery, a faith, and an ingenuity that belied her years. More so, Into the Flames is a testament to mankind's refusal in the face of life-threatening and overwhelming odds to succumb to the forces of evil. An inspiring book that should be added to both historical and non-fiction collections.