A Nazi officer's housekeeper hid 12 Jews in the basement. Reads like a novel

[Joinfortmill]

https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/hero-holocaust-polish-housekeeper-saved-12-jews-rcna12833

A Nazi officer’s housekeeper hid 12 Jews in the basement. All of them made it out alive.

Roman Haller owes his life to a 20-year-old housekeeper.

He was conceived in the basement of a home in Poland where his parents and 10 other Jews hid out during World War II. It wasn’t just any house. It belonged to a Nazi officer, and it was his housekeeper who smuggled the Jews to the basement and took care of them in secret.

When the Nazi officer discovered the Jews in his basement sometime later, Gut made a harrowing bargain: She agreed to become his mistress in exchange for his silence.

[MLAA]

1. Wow. This is a must read story. Thank you for posting.

Come on DU, this needs enough recs to make the Greatest Threads.

[bluecollar2]

26. Kick and rec!..n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Remarkable case study.

[al bupp]

3. A very touching story, with a twist at the end (read the link to find out!)

It brought to mind images from the film 'The Zoo Keeper's Wife' which had similar scenes of Jews hiding in the basement.

[momta]

23. Lots of parallels with that movie.

I thought of it too. Both great stories about true heroes.

[KS Toronado]

4. Good thing the Nazi was attracted to her, otherwise he would have killed them.

[ShazzieB]

5. Somebody needs to make a damned movie out of this!

[KS Toronado]

8. Absolutely, Schindler's List was made almost 30 years ago

Last edited Thu Jan 27, 2022, 05:01 PM - Edit history (1)

The movie going public is ready for another feel good movie, humanity over fascism.
Are you listening Steven Spielberg? Hollywood?

edit: added word I forgot

[DENVERPOPS]

18. There was a movie

which somewhat was like this. I can't remember what the name of the movie was........

[obamanut2012]

6. God, this made me cry

She deserves a movie.

Thank you for posting, OP.

[Carlitos Brigante]

7. K&R! nt

[stage left]

9. K&R

What a wonderful story.

[Karadeniz]

10. Thanks! I needed that!!!!!!

[mountain grammy]

11. Amazing story.. thanks for posting.

The courage of ordinary people is remarkable and wonderful.

[Talitha]

12. K&R

What incredible courage!

[secondwind]

13. Unbelievable story! Thanks for posting! Wow

[Samrob]

14. Amazing and beautiful. There is still hope.

[Emile]

15. Brave woman!

[Ohio Joe]

16. Wow... An amazing story...

I agree with others on this thread, this should be a movie.

[highplainsdem]

17. Definitely.

[calimary]

20. And a mighty inspiring movie at that!

[nuxvomica]

19. This is a blockbuster of a story!

It should be read aloud in every schoolroom and there should be monuments to Irena Gut and her face embossed on coins. I am in awe of this woman's heroism.

[Slammer]

21. Rudy Giuliani

When told of a housekeeper who hid twelve Jews in the basement, Rudy Giuliani told reporters that his housekeeper hides juice in the back of the top shelf of his refrigerator.

[lucca18]

22. What a story! Irena Gut is a hero.❤️

Amazing!
Thank you Irena Gut!
😍❤️💕

[PatrickforB]

24. We must never forget the Holocaust. As anti-Semitism rises in the US right now, we must

never forget, and we must do everything in our power as citizens of this republic to ensure the current batch of nazis and kluxers never take over the government and impose a fascist government.

I loved the quote from Irina - "Courage is a whisper from above. When you listen with your heart, you will know what to do and how and when."

Irina Gut.

Oskar Schindler.

Nicholas Winston.

Many, many others.

They knew what to do, how and when. Let us follow that example.

[summer_in_TX]

25. Amazing story!

And to think that we would not have known her story if a Holocaust denier hadn't called her and made her realize that only hearing the first hand stories of survivors would make it possible to counter the conspiracy theory!

[argyl]

27. Her story is one of many that needed to be told. Thankfully, it finally was.

And it should be made into a movie. With an all star cast and a budget reserved for superhero movies, minus the Special effects of course.

What a courageous young woman. We need stories like this in these times. And the shame and solitude she went through caring for the Hallers. Whatever shame she suffered at the hands of that pig Nazi officer they would have undoubtedly done their best to alleviate her pain.
And then her thinking she'd condemned her family to execution for her partisan fighting. Thankfully all the Hallers and her family made it out safely.
And some dipshit Holocaust denier calls the wonderful former Irina Gut at her home in the States and she just couldn't keep silent anymore. From then on in she told her story to anyone who would listen.
The overwhelming majority must have been entranced, as I was reading about this very special lady.
One thing I think is that if Ms. Gut weren't as beautiful as she was, she and the Hallers would have either been summarily executed, or perhaps worse, on the next train to Auschwitz. She did one thing unerringly. The right thing. And fortunately she saved some very deserving people.
And, unfortunately, she suffered most of all.

[The Jungle 1]

28. Oh man Oh oh Oh

We often talk about above and beyond the call.
I hope she had a blessed life after the war.

[RedSpartan]

29. The Nazi officer has also been recognized as Righteous Among The Nations

https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4017262&ind=NaN

[liberalla]

30. Bookmarking

[Wild blueberry]

31. Great story, truth more powerful than fiction

We don't know what we would do until a harrowing circumstance falls on us. Nothing is as clear as it is in history.
Thank you very much for posting this.

[JudyM]

32. Whoa, this excerpt from the article:

One Sunday in July 1942, Gut witnessed the horrors first hand: Nazi soldiers opening fire on Jews in the middle of a street. At one point, she saw a soldier toss a baby above his head and shoot it out of the air as if it were a clay pigeon.

“This was something you can never forget,” she said in a 2001 interview following the publication of her book, “In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer.”