Irene Gut Opdyke was a Polish nurse. Opdyke gained international recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II. During the German occupation, Gut was hired by Wehrmacht Major Eduard Rügemer to work in a kitchen of a hotel that frequently served Nazi officials. However, Gut secretly took food from the hotel and delivered it to the Tarnopol Ghetto. Opdyke smuggled Jews out of the ghetto into the surrounding forest and delivered food for them there. Meanwhile, Rügemer asked Opdyke to work as a housekeeper in his villa. She hid 12 Jews in the cellar of the villa. Rügemer found out about the Jews she was hiding and promised to keep Opdyke’s secret on the condition that she became his mistress. She was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for risking her life to save twelve Jews from certain death.

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