Irene Gut Opdyke.Photo: Kari Rene Hall/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has launched a new social media campaign to shine a light on the non-Jews who placed their lives on the line to save Jewish families during the Holocaust.
The organization’s#DontBeABystandercampaign aims to pay tribute to the “Righteous Among the Nations,” an honorific given to non-Jewish individuals who put themselves in danger to protect Jews from the Nazi regime.
“The Jewish people owe a debt of gratitude to their Righteous rescuers,” Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference, said in a statement about the campaign, which was launched in a partnership with Israel’s Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
One of the incredible stories featured for the campaign is ofIrene Gut Opdyke, a Polish woman who was training to become a nurse at the onset of World War II.
Roman Haller as a child with his parents.Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center
“She did this with the explicit knowledge that anyone caught helping Jews would be put to death immediately,” explained a page on the #DontBeABystanderwebsite.
Opdyke managed to keep them safe until the end of the war, but also endured a forced sexual relationship with an older German major who discovered what she was doing.
“What I would like to do is to encourage people, especially young, not to look away, to be brave, to stand up for humanity,” hesaid in a message.
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Those interested in learning more about the non-Jewish heroes of the Holocaust can visit the #DontBeABystanderwebsiteor search thehashtagon social media.
source: people.com
