The book IN MY HANDS, is about a woman named Irene Gut. She is a strong-willed and intelligent girl. When the book starts, it is the beginning of World War II. Irene is seventeen at the time and is going to nursing school in Radom. When the German's attack Poland, Radom is bombed. She escapes and lives in the woods with others that are on the run. One night some soldiers saw her and raped her then left Irene in the snow to die. Thankfully, some other soldiers come and found her. Taking her to the hospital, was the best thing for Irene. She met a doctor that helped her escape. From then on she was on her on. She went on to serve German officials food and learned of what horrible things were being done to the Jews. She felt that this was wrong and Irene had to do something about it. The beginning of her rescue mission was leaving buckets of food underneath the fence of one of the ghetto's. It progressed into harboring Jews in the basement of a German major that Irene was a house-keeper to. She has to become the major's mistress because he walked in and saw what Irene was doing. It took unbelievable strength for her to make it through all that had been done to her. She was one of those people that the worse things get the stronger Irene got. The book was put together very well. It told the story of Irene Gut very vividly that you could actually hear and see it happening. The another good thing was the vocabulary was very extensive. This book is a solid book that everyone needs to read because it is a first hand experience of the Holocaust.

I am so grateful for having read this book. It was deeply moving. I am a seventeen year old girl, as Irene was when the war began, and I cannot even imagine having to experience all of things she did....being raped, a mistress, etc. I admire this woman so much, her courage and determination are one in a billion. It's incomprehensible to know what she went through during those dreadful years, yet through it all her faith is what helped her to survive. I will never forget this book for as long as live...I've read so many books, and I have to admit that I think this one has truly moved me the most. I've read many Holocaust stories as well, but this had a profound effect on me. Please read this book--you'll gain not only a better insight of World War II and the Holocaust, but also how to appreciate life more and realize how much you take for granted.

I read the book In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke with Jennifer Armstrong for a school project in reading class. At first I did not think I would like this book because the holocaust is such a horrible thing. As I read on though I could not set the book down. It kept me turning the pages. Irene Gutowna is a seventeen-year-old, gentile, Polish girl who gets dragged into the war and separated from her family. Irene could not even image what would go on over the next five years of her life. Everything would change.
One day she goes outside past curfew and is raped and beaten by Nazi officers. She devotes herself to doing anything she can to get back at the Nazis for this horrible act against her, and for taking over her beloved Poland. While in recovery she learns and teaches herself the German language. She ends up working for a German Nazi cafeteria that is located right next to a concentration camp.
She starts off small by putting food under a fence, in hope that someone in the horrible camp will get the food. This was just one small step in Irene's great journey. Eventually it leads up to hiding ten Jewish people in a German major's villa and feeding them food. When the major finds out Irene is hiding and feeding the Jews in his basement of his house, he is infuriated. Forces her to become his mistress. If she had denied, he would have had to turn her and the others in. This would mean the sentence of death for all. These are just a couple of things Irene does to corrupt the Nazi party. This book was very inspiring to me. To know that someone would be so willing to risk so much, even his or her own life and for fighting for what they believe in.