Michael Opas - [n.d.]
Civilian Involvement in Camps
Okay. Was there any civilian involvement in your camp--in any of the camps? Were there ever German civilians working in the camps?
Oh yeah.
What were they like and what were they doing there?
Well, they, they were business people. Like in, like uh, in Budzyn, for instance, there were a lot of civilians who were--they were, they were the Baumeister--like, like, like uh, engineers or--well, I don't know how to say Baumeisters. Like uh, engineers mostly. There were civilians. Sure there was a lot of civilians who, who--I worked, as I said before, I worked in that factory where they fixed those airplanes...
Where was that now?
This was in Budzyn.
Mm-hm.
And uh, there were a mo...a lot, very, very many civilians. And they, they were, they were real nice to us, the civilians. I don't mean nice. They, they overlooked things. They didn't bother us. I mean, as long we did the work. We were, we were free workers--free slaves.
Mm-hm.
They didn't have to pay us. They made good money on us because they--they're getting, they get paid for those, for those repairs from...
Were there civilians who did not overlook?
Well, there were some civilians who didn't overlook, sure. But I didn't encounter, encounter...
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