The incredible true story of Irena Gut Opdyke during WWII has now been turned into a movie — Irena’s Vow. The movie is told through the eyes of strong-willed, 19-year-old Irena, and represents the triumphs of the human spirit in a time of devastating tragedy. She is promoted to housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer when she finds out that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated. Determined to help Jewish workers, she decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of – the basement of the German Major’s house. Over the next two years, Irena used her wit, humor, and courage to hide her friends until the end of the German occupation, concealing them amid countless Nazi parties, a blackmail scheme, and even the birth of a child.
We talk with her real life daughter, Jeannie Smith about when her mom shared her story with her, what made her speak up after years of silence and seeing her mom’s plight on on the big screen. Plus screenwriter Dan Gordon shares how the writing became so real through recent events.
Interviewed for Family Entourage
Family Entourage: Jeannie, talk to me about this story of your mother. I’m so curious. Was this something that you grew up as she gradually told you? Was there a defining moment when she sat you down and said, this is my story? What did that look like for better understanding who your mom was?
Jeannie Smith: My mom came to this country in 1949. She literally pulled into Ellis Island on the ship and in front of the Statue of Liberty put a “Do Not Disturb” sign over her memory. So it wasn’t her plan to really ever talk about it. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and she was confronted with a Holocaust denier, actually a very young person, and she was so shocked that somebody who wasn’t even alive back then could be brainwashed to think that it had never happened. And I remember her saying, I’ve allowed evil and I’ve allowed enemy to win because if we don’t start speaking out, history will repeat itself. And so she slowly started speaking and it took me quite a few years before I really got the grasp of her story. Most of me just didn’t want to know. It looked too painful. It took a long time.
FE: Wow. And then when it comes to the point that she’s sharing it in this medium where so many are able to take a glimpse into her life and what she experienced during World War II. Dan, talk to me about how you even approached bringing this story to screen.
Dan Gordon: Well, somewhere around 25 or 30 years ago, and I couldn’t really tell you when I was driving home one night listening, it was a Sunday night listening to the radio. There was a show in LA where I lived at the time called Religion on the Line that Dennis Prager used to host. And I heard Irena telling her story, and I pulled into my driveway and I was so captivated by the story that I spent the next two hours in the driveway listening to the radio. And then the next morning I called the radio station and I said, my name’s Dan Gordon. I’m not a psycho, I’m not a stalker. I’m actually a screenwriter. I’ve got credits and you can check me out. And I heard this show last night, and could you please pass my telephone number along to Mrs. Opdyke because I’d like to acquire her life story rights and do a motion picture based on her story. And about three or four hours later, I get a call and there was this delightfully accented lady on the other end who said hello.
And that began the true love affair with Irena. My mother had already passed by that time. And I came to think of Irena as a second mother and just adored her. And I took her to many of the schools that she spoke at. And these were inner city kids by and large, and kids who had no notion of the Holocaust, didn’t know what this little five-foot-two blonde lady with the accent was there talking about. And within five minutes she would have them in the palm of her hand and she would always say at the end, even the big macho boys come for a hug, and they did. It was amazing to see her rapport with young people. It was extraordinary. It was really inspiring.
FE: You can tell from the movie that she is just a special individual and has bravery and courage so Jeannie, talk a little bit about that aspect of your mom and how she’s one person and here she was able to save a dozen, and then the lineage that follows with that. Talk to me maybe a little bit about how we can actually make a difference.
JS: Oh, absolutely. That was my mom’s mantra to say that one person could make a difference. And it’s totally true. We may not be able to do the big things that she did, but we have opportunity every day to show a kindness, to help somebody to stand up for what’s right or stand against what’s wrong. So that’s really, that was her basic reason for continuing to let people know that we are all part of one human family and we’re all connected. And when we stop caring for each other, when we stop being human, that’s when we’re in real trouble.
FE: So much of the story, sadly, is very relevant today. Dan, maybe talk to me a little bit about writing the screenplay, probably not thinking it would be as relevant as it is… talk to me about what that struggle looked like getting it on page?
DG: No, I never thought when I wrote the screenplay that I would ever live to see a time in which genocidal mass murderers would be burning their way through Jewish villages and Jews would be hiding from people who wanted to massacre them for the crime of being Jews. But that’s exactly what happened on October 7th. There are things in there which were, as much as I know about the Holocaust and have family members who were in the Holocaust and interviewed literally hundreds and hundreds of people and studied it and seen all the footage, it was still academic up until October 8th when all of a sudden you see the atrocities of which people are capable and how horrific they can be. And so there are scenes in there, which I wrote are very, very difficult for me to watch because I know now people to whom that happened to their family members. I was in those that still smelled of the blood that were still smelled of the smoke.
I have a dear friend who lost five family members on that day, both parents, all three children, all murdered, and not quickly and not pleasantly. And so, yeah, I never realized how relevant it would become. And someone was just asking me about that. It took 28 or so years to get this movie made, and the fellow who’s interviewing me is Catholic, and he said, maybe that’s the enemy trying to hold it back. I said, it could be. And maybe that’s God saying, wait, there’s a better time for this to come out. It certainly one way or the other is more relevant today than ever.
FE: Talk to me about seeing your mom’s story this way? I couldn’t help but immediately when I saw Sophie [Nélisse who plays Irena], I thought of The Book Thief [movie she was in as a child], and so I loved seeing her embody your mom and then being able to actually shoot in Poland. How did it feel for you to see it?
JS: Well, Dan’s story was a Broadway play first, and that was huge for me to sit in an audience and see a play about my mom. I didn’t miss one night. I was there for every single performance. And I’ve had the same experience I’ve got to do to a lot of the film festivals and be there and I get asked, do you want to sit in the green room? And it’s like, absolutely not. I have a chance to see a mom that I haven’t seen for 23 years and I wouldn’t miss it. And I didn’t know my mom when she was that age at 19 or 20, but Sophie is everything that I would imagine that she would have looked like and how she would’ve acted. So it is an unbelievable, amazing treat to be able to see that. So I wasn’t part of the filming. I spend most of my time actually traveling the country sharing her story, so that’s what I was doing. So getting to see it was a gift that I can’t fully describe.
Irena’s Vow debuts on April 15th and April 16th in theaters across the country, click here for tickets. Each screening will be accompanied by exclusive video footage featuring Jeannie Smith, Irena’s real-life daughter, Roman Haller, the baby that was conceived and born in captivity, Dan Gordon, the incredible screenwriter and storyteller, Sophie Nélisse, the actress who portrays Irena, and the director, Louise Archambault.
