Late in 1949, Irene saw the Statue of Liberty from the deck of the troopship John Muir, which carried refugees from Europe. She was greeted by a member of the Jewish Resettlement Organization, who found her a place to live in Brooklyn. Before long, Irene was employed in a garment factory and learning English. Her new life had begun. Then, one day, to her astonishment, she bumped into William Opdyke in a coffee shop near the United Nations.
He remembered her vividly—how could he not?—and began to court her. They were married a few months later. Five years after her arrival at New York harbor, Irene became a United States citizen. She and Bill had a daughter, whom they named Janina, and they lived among the orange groves of Southern California, in the sunshine, in a place untouched by war.
Because the Soviet Iron Curtain had sealed Poland off from the West, it was difficult for her to hear news of the family and friends she had left behind. But bits and pieces reached her. She learned that Major Rügemer had been ostracized by his family because of his involvement with Irene and her friends, and that he had been cared for in Münich by the Hallers until his death. Many of her friends had immigrated to Israel, where they started new lives in the Jewish homeland. Sadly, she also learned that her mother had died shortly after the war's conclusion. With no end in sight to the Communist control of Poland, she feared she would never see her beloved sisters again.
Like many refugees from the war, Irene tried to put her experiences behind her. But when she began hearing that some people here in the United States believed the Holocaust was an exaggeration, a propaganda myth to promote support for Israel, she broke her silence and began to tell her story. She speaks to church congregations, to synagogues, to community groups. Her favorite audience is high school students, because she wants especially to convince young people that they can make a difference, that they have the power to fight against evil.
In 1982, Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial recognized her heroism and honored her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. On her trip to Israel for this ceremony, she finally met Roman Haller, the baby—now a grown man—whose life she had made possible.
And with the end of the Communist regime in Poland, Irene returned to her homeland in 1984 for the first time since the war, and there met Janina, Marysia, Władzia, and Bronia, and their families.