Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Michael Opas - [n.d.]

Mm-hm. In any of the camps that you were in, were there any particularly blocks that had--were--that you remember particularly that were infamous--that something terrible may have happened on any particular block?

Well...

Or were they all just as bad?

All the barracks was bad. I know one, I know one of my brothers got killed in--I was in Auschwitz with my brother. He came, he came--I was there already and he came later from the Łódź, from Łódź.

Were you surprised to see him?

Surprised, yeah. No I--by, by accident I found--I heard--somebody mentioned, mentioned my name--one of the Kapos at work during, during the lunch hour. So he mentioned, he mentioned my name. I said, "How do you know, how do you know my name?" because there were all the numbers--I mean, everybody was called by number. He said, "I didn't mean you, I, I, I saw, I saw one of your brothers there." Because he mentioned--he said, "A new transport came from, from Łódź." He said, "I saw, I saw one of Opas's sons." So naturally I felt--I start crying--I said, "Must be my brother." So I, I went over after work--I went over to--they were quarantined, all of them--so I went over to this, to this barrack where they were quarantined and I couldn't--they wouldn't let me in. So I, I waited 'til somebody came out to go to the outhouse. So I begged him to, to announce--when he goes back--to announce that--to call my name and uh, to tell him that a brother is waiting outside. So he came out finally after a few hours. And when I--I didn't see him for many years. I, I was living in, in Warsaw at the time when I came to--before, before Auschwitz. So he was--I was with him only for six weeks in this camp--in Auschwitz and then, and then he was sent to a different place. And then last I heard he was killed on the way. He tried to run away and he was killed--shot after.