In My Hands Quotes

“In my fantasies, I was always caught up in heroic struggles, and I saw myself saving lives, sacrificing myself for others. I had far loftier ambitions than mere romance.”
― Irene Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“If we were stopped and questioned, I always smiled at the officers, and they always smiled back. In my heart, I was seeing them dead. But on my face, I was an open invitation. If you are only a girl, this is how you destroy your enemies.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“Every day now, I found a chance to slip outside and leave food under the fence. I knew it was a drop in the ocean, but I could not do nothing.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“If you are only a girl, this is how you destroy your enemies.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“Bazen Polonya'daki nefret miktarını düşündüğümde çimenlerin hala yeşil kalabilmelerine, ağaçların hala dallarını gökyüzüne uzatabilmelerine şaşırıyordum.
Ama uzatıyorlardı. Savaşla ilgili en büyük ironilerden biri de bu, insanın inana sırt çevirdiği yerde bile doğa başkaldırmıyordu. Çok güzel bahar günlerinde geçen kabuslar yaşıyordum: Kuşlar daldan dala atlayıp böcekleri avlarken, diğer kuşlarla cilveleşirken diğer tarafta yerde, çamur içinde küçük çocuklar ölü yatıyorlardı.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“gentleman and knew what Rokita”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“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 food under a fence.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“We did not speak of what we had seen. At the time, to speak of it seemed worse than sacrilege: We had witnessed a thing so terrible that it acquired a dreadful holiness. It was a miracle of evil. It was not possible to say with words what we had witnessed, and so we kept it safely guarded until the time when we could bring it out, and show it to others, and say, "Behold. This is the worst thing man can do.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“Sometimes, when I thought of the amount of hatred dwelling in Poland, I was surprised to see that the grass was still green, that the trees still flourished their leaves against a blue sky.

And yet they did. It is a terrible irony of war, that nature itself does not rebel when man turns against his brother. I have seen nightmares take place on beautiful spring days. The birds can hop from one branch to another, tipping their heads and honing their small beaks against the bark while a child dies in the bud below.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“I could not catch my breath even to scream.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

“In my heart, I was seeing them dead. But on my face, I was an open invitation. If you are only a girl, this is how you destroy your enemies.”
― Irene Gut Opdyke, In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer