Holocaust Heroine Is Satisfied With Accord

With a hearty embrace of her onetime foe, Holocaust heroine Irene Gut Opdyke on Tuesday settled her bitter legal battle with a Laguna Hills promoter contracted to produce her epic story for the big screen.

Orange County Superior Court Judge James A. Jackman, in a dramatic announcement that came minutes before the reading of a jury verdict, said Opdyke and the promoter, Alan N. Boinus, had settled their dispute over rights to Opdyke’s World War II story.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but both sides called it amicable. Immediately afterward, Opdyke embraced Boinus, who was obviously relieved to be lifted from what he has called the unenviable position of defending himself against a “Holocaust Hero.”

“We’re happy,” said Boinus, tears welling in his eyes. “Love won out.”

An ecstatic Opdyke hugged admiring jurors as they left the courtroom and promised them copies of her book. Several jurors returned Opdyke’s hugs with kisses.

“There have been many miracles in my life, and this is one of them,” said the 82-year-old Yorba Linda resident, who speaks in a thick Polish accent. “It’s an Easter and Passover miracle.”

The settlement marks the end of an emotional one-month trial that opened a window to Opdyke’s courageous saga as a young woman in war-torn Poland. Jurors said they were moved by Opdyke’s story.

“To me it was human drama. A story of human hopes and dreams and expectations,” said juror Janet Ellmore, a retired teacher from Garden Grove.

As a teenager living in Poland, Opdyke saved at least 12 Jews by hiding them in a villa where she worked as a maid for a German officer. When the officer became aware of her activities, she became his mistress in exchange for his silence.

Opdyke’s moral struggle led her to seek the advice of a priest, who said she would lose her soul if she didn’t stop “living in sin.” But Opdyke, a Roman Catholic, dismissed the priest’s admonishment and continued her plan to save her Jewish friends.

Wanting to reach a wider audience, Opdyke gave the rights to her story to Boinus, a self-described Hollywood producer who said he is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinema. The legal battle flared up in late 1998 when Opdyke claimed that Boinus had manipulated her into signing the contract.

Neither Opdyke nor Boinus would say whether a movie deal was in the works.

“For me it’s important to speak to the children,” Opdyke said. “I survived. I want young people to realize that they can make a change for the better.”