Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Michael Opas - [n.d.]

Sharing Story with Strangers

What other people have you discussed it with who are not survivors? I mean, am I the first non-survivor that you've discussed it with other than your relatives?

Oh no, I, survi...I talk with non-survivors too. I mean, some people are sympathetic. There are Ger...American people, strangers even who--even, even Gentiles...

Mm-hm.

I talk to Gentiles sometimes because they were asking--they, they noticed my number--they were asking how it was there, no? I told them--in short words--I mean, I couldn't describe it the whole thing. They were sympathetic and they, they, they couldn't figure out how in the world could this happen--how this can happen. In a civilized world, how this could happen. I say, "It still happens." This--it wasn't a hoax like, like some, like some claim...

Mm-hm.

...this was a hoax. Pictures don't lie. There, there are millions of pictures taken--even by Ger...by the SS--they took the pictures. And now in the museums, all in...

Mm-hm.

...in uh, in Yad Vashem there is plenty of, hundreds of pictures.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn