Irene Opdyke

SocialWorkersSpeak.org in December arranged a screening of “Irena Sendler: In their Names of  Their Mothers,” a documentary about Polish social work heroine Irena Sendler.

Sendler and her team of social workers rescued thousands of Jewish children from extermination by the Nazis.

Since then we were contacted by National Association of Social Workers member Hillary Volper, MSW, ACSW, to let us know about her work commemorating Irene Opdyke, another heroine from World War II.

Volper is producer of “A Place for My Friends,” 17-minute documentary about Updyke, a Polish nurse who became housekeeper for a German major. She hid a dozen Jews and saved them from the concentration camps by hiding them right under the nose of the Germans in the basement of the major’s residence.

Opdyke died in 2003 at age 81 but in her 70s continued to educate young people and others about the Holocaust. Volper’s documentary, which is narrated by former news anchor Stone Phillips, contains footage of Opdyke speaking in schools.

“God gave us free will to be good or bad,” Opdyke said. “It is up to us to choose what road we will take. The evil one or the good one.”

To see “A Place for My Friends,” click here. And to read more on SocialWorkersSpeak.org about the Irena Sendler documentary, click here.