Irena’s Vow by Julie Swenson

The Transforming Power of Love and Forgiveness

Irena’s Vow is an amazing, yet true, story of the transforming power of love and forgiveness even in the face of unthinkable evil. But it is also about the power of evil to rise again, even after it appears to have been completely defeated.

Irena’s Vow is told in flashbacks, beginning with the aging Irena Gut Opdyke telling her story to a school class. We are taken back to Irena’s girlhood in Poland where we learn that ordinary people can do both remarkably good and remarkably bad things.

Irena, a Polish Catholic, was 18 when she was gang raped by soldiers of the invading Soviet army. Her family scattered, Irena was forced to work as a servant for a much older German major, who was the top authority in the town to which she had been sent.

Witnessing unspeakable atrocities against Jews in the town, Irena purposed to hide 12 Jews who had been working for her.

The life-and-death struggle to maintain the Jews’ safety ultimately cost Irena her reputation and freedom. But does it cost her her life and the lives of those she is hiding? That’s the story unfolded on the stage before you.

As powerful as Irena’s tale is, two of the most chilling moments come from lines delivered by German officers.

One, an SS member, explains how Germany is able to accomplish the wholesale slaughter of the Jews: One small step at a time. You condition them to obedience in the face of loss. Two, a German army major, despondent at the collapse of the so-called “Thousand Year Reich,” says, “It is amazing how fast it crumbles.”

Irena’s Vow is as much about today as it is World War II.