Irena’s Vow: A Glimpse of Heroic Holocaust History Even as History Repeats Itself
By Liz Braun
Rating: B+
Irena Gut was a Polish woman who risked her life to save a dozen Jews during WWII.
Gut was still a teenager when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. The nurse-in-training began her work as a rescuer with small steps, initially just slipping food under the fence of the Jewish ghetto.
Before long Gut was supplying food and information to Jewish workers, and eventually she hid 12 people in the basement of a villa where she was housekeeper to German Major Eduard Rugemer.
The extraordinary story is told in Irena’s Vow, an historical drama that had its world premiere at TIFF 2023. Written by Dan Gordon and directed by Louise Archambault, the Canadian production stars Sophie Nélisse (Yellowjackets) as Irena and Dougray Scott as Major Rugemer.
Nélisse’s understated performance anchors the film. She is completely three-dimensional here as an earnest woman who keeps to a personal code of ethics and never wavers, even as the stakes go higher.
Forced by the occupying Nazis to work at a munitions factory, Irena crosses paths with Major Rugemer, a high-ranking official who is impressed by her work ethic and her fluent German. He finds her more suitable domestic work, supervising a team of Jewish tailors responsible for the German officer’s uniforms.
Like Irena, the tailors’ work is a matter of survival — none of them is actually a tailor, but they’ll figure it out to stay alive. A friendship develops between her and the group.
Once the extermination of Polish Jews begins, Irena does her best to protect her friends. As things escalate, she has to take greater risks, eventually organizing a scheme to hide them all in the basement of the lavish villa where she now works as Rugemer’s housekeeper.
Sneaking them into the house and then keeping her dangerous secret — harbouring Jews was punishable by death — is an anxiety-provoking series of close-calls and narrow escapes.
Irena’s Vow does not shy away from war violence, and various harrowing incidents are seen from Irena’s clear-eyed, albeit devastated, viewpoint.
One such scene, a Nazi soldier’s cold-blooded killing of a woman and her infant, is based on the actual incident said to have inspired Gut’s determination to help others during the war.
Why Gut — a Catholic — was inspired to be one of the helpers isn’t delved into in much detail in Irena’s Vow, but the message about doing good where one can comes through loud and clear. And not a moment too soon, given the current uptick in antisemitism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia and misogyny.
Irena’s Vow is beautifully filmed, with careful attention to period detail. Watch for a glimpse of the real Irena in a brief epilogue to the film.
Irena Gut was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1982.
CLICK HERE to read Bonnie Laufer’s interview with Irena’s Vow lead Sophie Nélisse.
Irena’s Vow. Directed by Louise Archambault, written by Dan Gordon. Starring Sophie Nélisse, Dougray Scott, and Maciej Nawrocki. In theatres April 19.