Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Benjamin Fisk - November 8, 1982

Um, do you ever see things in everyday life that remind you of the camps? Do you ever have flashbacks or have things like that?

Well, I tell you, if I, if I see what they do to the colored people, you know, in the South and, you know, you see, you hear about, you see it in television stuff like that, you know, ??? close to that. When we came to Oklahoma City we were--the colored were still sitting in the back, segregated, you know. And I used to go over and sit in the back with the colored people, you know. Yeah that's what I used to do.

Wife: I had that experience ???

This was part of it why we left over there, you know, because the segregation. I couldn't stand it. It was too much for me, you know, the way they treating the colored. That was part of it, you know.

Are you close friends with people who have not lived through the experiences you have?

Yeah, we have quite a few friends, you know. Matter of fact, you know, the kids made me, you know, a sixty anniversary, you know...

Wife: Birthday.

Birthday, whatever you call it, you know, thirty-seventh anniversary to...to...together, you know, and we had quite a few American friends here, you know.

Wife: Sixty people.

Sixty people at my son's house. He lives in Troy, you know, seventeen, eighteen miles away from us. Got a couple acres of land over there so we had a party over there.

Wife: ???

There were some Americans over there. There were some. ??? Yeah.

Is it easier for you to talk about your experiences with other survivors?

Oh, yeah, we talk--you can't get away from it. Whatever subject you talk to you always come out with the concentration camp and what you lived through stuff like that, you know, you can't get away from it, you know. No getting away from it.

What are you plans and hopes for your children and for their future?

The children are out there on their own. They make their own plans. When they were young we took care of them, you know, and uh, now they're on their own.

Wife: ??? school ???

??? went to college, you know, and we helped as much as we could. He worked a little bit in the ???. And, you know, Martin didn't go to--he went to about a year and a half of college but he got three years. He wasn't too much for college but he's making a good living too. She's studying to be a lawyer, you know. She's working for the federal government, you know, in the Social Security Administration now but she applied--she wants to go to the FBI yeah and stuff, you know.

Wife: My daughter ???

She wants to be a lawyer probably. She gets up six 'o clock, five, six days a week--five days a week.

Wife: My son ???

She goes to work and after work she goes to school all the way to Wayne, you know, from Pontiac over there and she ???, you know, and ???.