In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

Major Rügemer plays a vital role in the events of the memoir, first giving Irena a job preparing and serving food for German officers, which will eventually allow her to save Jewish lives, then providing Irena with the opportunity to hide twelve Jews by asking her to be his personal servant in his villa.

For much of the memoir, Irena believes the major to be an honorable man, never

seeing him “do anything cruel or rash or give a reprimand where it wasn’t deserved” (216). Irena is aware that Rügemer is attracted to her, and for a time he plays the role of buffoon, a “deaf and snuffling codger” upstairs in his villa, “oblivious to the goings-on at his very feet” (186). However, a darker side to the major’s character emerges when he forces Irena to become his mistress in exchange for keeping the hidden Jews secret. Irena loses faith in the major, but by the end of the memoir she forgives him, seeing him as a flawed man, but one who has “helped me save many lives” (233).

In contrast to the flawed but redeemable Major Rügemer, SS commander Rokita emerges as a symbol of absolute evil in the memoir, almost a personification of Hitler’s desire to exterminate the Jews. When Irena first sees Rokita, after already hearing tales of his cruelty from her Jewish workers, she concludes that while he is young and handsome, “Rokita had a heart of ice,” and “to be under his command must be as dangerous as living below a snowfield: One false move, and the ice would come down and crush you” (122-123).

Rokita is the formidable villain of Irena’s story—not just an enemy, but as Irena says, “my enemy” (123). Rokita is the one who organizes Aktions and takes the Jews away, presumably to their deaths; later, he gleefully carries out Hitler’s plans to make Ternopol free of Jews. Though she is disgusted by Rokita, Irena takes comfort in the knowledge that she has thwarted her enemy, ensuring that Ternopol will never be free of Jews.

While Rügemer and Rokita represent two different types of German officers, Herr Schulz portrays another type of German, a cook who must work with the German army while still maintaining his own compassion and humanity. When Irena first comes to work for Schulz, she sees him as a “good, friendly man” (98), generously giving her and her family extra food and hiring her sister as well. Later in the memoir, Irena realizes Schulz knows she is helping the Jews and is providing her with extra food and supplies for that purpose. Grateful as she is, Irena finds herself “almost angry at Schulz for being so kind and for helping me help the Jews without admitting it—he made hating the Germans a complex matter, when it should have been such as straightforward one” (134). Schulz becomes an example of an individual who, in his own small way, chooses to act against evil and do some good in the midst of a horrific situation.

While Irena’s younger sister Janina doesn’t receive too much character development, she is important as a reflection of Irena’s own desires throughout the memoir. Early on during the war, Irena’s own innocence is ripped away when she is raped by Russian soldiers, and Irena becomes fiercely protective of Janina’s innocence as a result. While Irena herself willingly flirts with Rokita to gain information, when she sees that Rokita is interested in Janina, she is so horrified that she arranges to send Janina away. Irena sees no point in protecting her own innocence any longer, and she does everything in her power to give Janina that which she wants for herself but can no longer have.

Pasiewski is a forester who is sympathetic to the Jewish cause and who hides two of Irena’s Jewish workers in his cottage, along with Irena herself. He also leads Irena to the partisan group that gives her a new sense of purpose after the war. Treating Irena as if she’s a part of his family, Pasiewski becomes an example of the “good, brave people” Irena has met “during this terrible war” (227).

Father Joseph is a priest who encourages his parish to help the Jews hiding in the nearby forest, and who also provides Irena with emotional support and helps to renew her faith in God. The father provides another example of the many good-hearted people who rebelled against the Germans in quiet, subtle ways during World War II.