 
Rescued persons: Haller,
Lazar, Haller, Ida, Bien, David, Dawid, Bien, Fanny, Willner, Silberman,
Francisca
|
Franka Wilner,
together with 300 other Jews, was sent from the Tarnopol ghetto to a camp near
a military garage (Heeres Kraftsfahr park), where she was put to work in the
laundry room of the officers’ club. The local employment office (Arbeitsamt)
appointed Irena Gut, a young Pole, as supervisor of the laundry. From the day
she started her job, Gut helped the Jewish inmates, supplying them with food
and cigarettes, which she obtained by exploiting her position as principal
purchaser for the club. One of Gut’s functions was to look after the German
commander, Major Eduard Ruegemer (recognized as Righteous
in 2012). Through him Gut obtained passes for Jews, to allow them to make
purchases on the Aryan side of the city. The commander also allowed the
families of his Jewish prisoners to move into the camp, thereby sparing them
the Aktionen that took place from time to time in the ghetto. Even after 1943,
when the camp became a Judenlager (Jewish camp) and was made into a subsidiary
of the Janowska camp in Lwow, Ruegemer and Gut continued to look after the
Jews. When, on July 23, 1943, the Germans began liquidating the camp, Gut
helped many of the inmates find hiding places. Ruegemer drove others to the
forest, where they dug a bunker for themselves and survived with the help of
Gut who brought them provisions and maintained contact with them. Others –
including Franka Wilner and her husband, and the Heller couple – were hidden in
the laundry room. Others were hidden in a villa that had been requisitioned by
the German major. Gut saw to all their needs, and courageously defied the
threats of various blackmailers who suspected she was helping Jews. In March
1944, shortly before the Red Army liberated the area, the Gestapo arrested Gut,
but she escaped. After the war, most of the survivors immigrated to Israel and
in 1982, invited Gut to come and visit them in Jerusalem.On July 8, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Irena Opdyke (née Gut) as Righteous Among the Nations.
