How Did Irene Opdyke Deserve Courage

It was the beginning of spring in 1944 when her suffering began: Irene and her family were forcibly evacuated from her home and brought to Jewish Street in the Jewish ghettos. They left most of their material possessions behind, carrying what their arms could hold, and lived on the floor of a stranger's house. She described that street as "the dirtiest street [she] ever saw", but she was only there for a few weeks before being relocated to a brick factory. They stayed at that factory for five days, building temporary shelters out of bricks and being hit and forced to do tricks like dogs for the pleasure of the German and Hungarian soldiers, before they and the other Jews were loaded onto cattle trains and sent off to Auschwitz-Birkenau. For three days, Irene and her family-- those who were in the cart, her mother, father, three younger sisters and two of her brothers-- traveled to

Irene lived a complete life despite the loss of her husband and daughter, both of whom she cared for at home. She never replaced her beloved husband but went on to find comfort in a strong group of friends and her family, her daughters Lynne and the late Susan, Son-in-law David, her Grandchildren; Sarah, John, Matthew, Karli and Dan, and her Great-Grandchildren; Theo, Archie, Logan, Brooke, Oliver, Freddie, Aliyah, Jake, Eva, Gene, CiCi and Mila. An active member of the Humberston W.I and various local groups. She travelled extensively and made friends wherever she went.

First of all Marion survived the Holocaust at just a young age of thirteen. Second she

After living for years in an awful war that weighed heavily on her soul, I felt despair for Irene’s inability to rejoin her family. Irene then needed a place to go to escape persecution by the Soviet Union for her partisan crimes since her family would be in danger if she looked for them. The irony in her choosing to go to Germany disguised as a Jewish refugee almost made me laugh because of its

Her parents died on the train to the concentration camp, and saved Trudes life, by taking bullets for her and her siblings. She didn’t say much about her holocaust experience but what she did say was absolutely outstanding. She has killed one of the nazi guards there at the concentration camp. She killed him by taking him by surprise and snapping his neck and no one saw her do this.

Irene saved 16 jewish lives by hiding them from German Officers in what seemed like plain sight. She brought them to a forest safe from Nazi’s but while doing all of this she risked her life for others. She provided resources to the jews she rescued and gave other jewish people extra rations. Although, while hiding the jews she was caught and forced to become Major Rugemer mistress.

One of the most memorable events about World War II was the holocaust. Most people remember the many lives that were lost in this massive genocide. Although many lives were lost a few were able to survive and share their experiences in those harsh times. Many non Jewish people helped in anyway possible such as Stefania Podgorska. During the holocaust Podgorska kept resistance by hiding and providing for Jews in the most necessary times.

Irene Redfield is a morally reprehensible woman with an ironic twinge to her character. While claiming she is proud of who she is and her race she simultaneously hides who she is for convenience. She looks down on those who do the same for the sake of being able to live without persecution.

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity quotes Elie Wielsel’s, “Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and human sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place- at that moment- become the center of the universe.” Many people suffered and had to give up their lives during the holocaust. The days of horror and torture during this time is to be told by many different writers. Elie Wiesel, Corrie Ten Boom, and Anne Frank, three writers I chose, all wrote books about the holocaust to make it a little bit easier to understand the real life situations they had to go through while in hiding. If it wasn’t for them, people today wouldn’t know the pain and hardships people had to face at that time. The holocaust was a life changing event that shaped the world to how it now is today.

She refuses to condemn Clare by revealing her secret even though it means she has to tolerate avoidable vitriol because she knows it would cause irreparable damage. Because black women are given so few options, Irene attempts to protect herself from emotional and physical harm as best as she can. Watching Clare ignore these risks angers her because she then has to take on the burden of protecting another grown adult while subjecting herself to the racism that she tries so hard to protect herself from. As a woman, Irene has to shoulder additional emotional weight because it is what society deems her role to be. Her frustration with Clare stems from her apparent lack of understanding of the danger of being a black woman entrenched in a racist white world, and the lack of understanding of how her actions are detrimental to Irene’s need for safety.

The individual personalities of Anne Frank and Irene Gut affected the way they were able to view the holocaust. During the holocaust, Anne Frank, a young girl hiding in a secret attic, had a bright and cheery personality. Her personality affected the way she saw the holocaust. Anne loved her family, so she constantly joked around and tried to cheer them up, even though it often did not work. People interpreted her bright personality as a sign that she was childish and needed to be watched. Therefore, Anne was babied and was taken care of. On the other hand, Irene had a

When Irene finally realizes that this woman is Clare, someone who chooses to “pass” and hide all traces of her black heritage, Irene’s opinion of her changes. She no longer wants to be involved with Clare in any way, and “had no desire or intention of making the slightest effort about Tuesday. Nor any other day for that matter. She was through with Clare Kendry.” (p. 31) Irene is appalled that someone can so easily throw away her background just for the sake of gaining privilege over another race. When Clare asks her if she had ever thought of passing, Irene replies, “No. Why should I? You see, Clare, I’ve everything I want.” (p. 28) She is happy with what she has, not even having to give up anything to get there. Or at least that’s what she convinces herself to believe. Irene is again hypocritical in her beliefs. Even when she opposes Clare’s view of passing, she is still very interested in the idea. “The truth was, she was curious. There were things she wanted to ask Clare Kendry. She wished to find out about this hazardous business of ‘passing’…” (p. 24) She even admitted that she held for her “a fascination, strange and compelling.” (p. 28) Irene doesn’t seem to be able to decide if she accepts passing as reasonable. She forces herself to disagree with passing, allowing her to hate Clare for doing it. This shows us that sexuality and race are two matters that conflict with each other, at least in Irene’s opinion. She uses race to

Irene wants to control her relationship with Clare and seems frustrated as she loses control when Clare is around. One occasion, Irene tries hard not to accept Clare’s invitation to meet her but ends up going. Later, Irene’s anger goes away just by the power of Clare’s smile, "And under her potent smile a part of Irene's annoyance with herself fled”. This constant loose of power makes Irene vulnerable and the possible affair between Clare and Brian gives Irene a motive for hating her instead of admitting her lesbianism and losing the life she has worked so hard to build.

Almost everything I learned about Irene was surprising to me. First of all I found it interesting that Irene was an orphan. Typically when I think of leaders I think of members of the upper class or at the very least middle class. Irene being an orphan is strange to me because it must have been nearly impossible for an orphan girl to rise to the rank of empress at this point in time. Something else that stood out to me about Irene was the fact that she had a strong interest in military affairs despite having no prior experience in that field. Not only was she interested but she was also successful in military campaigns at the beginning of her reign despite replacing many of her experienced commanders with inexperienced ones. What is most shocking

Anne and her family has very hard lives during the Holocaust. They treat you so poorly in the concentration camps. The fact that they hid for a very long time instead of registering, made them prisoners so they were treated even worse.