Michael Opas - [n.d.]
Start of War
What were your plans for the future before the war? What did you think your life would bring you?
Well, we didn't plan too much ahead, but I know my business was growing. And I had a son with my first wife. And we worked--we hoped for him a, a good future, I mean. The best education possible. Well, we didn't, we didn't plan so much ahead because, you know, we were young. What could--what can you plan ahead of time when you, when you were very young?
Mm-hm, Mm-hm. Can you, uh, describe your experiences during the war? Where were you when the war began and how did you hear about it?
How I hear about it?
Mm-hm.
Well, the war--when the war broke out, as I said before, in 1939, I left my hometown because I was forced out. I went to Warsaw.
Was your wife--you both were forced together?
Yeah we both went to Warsaw with my son. And uh, because Warsaw didn't belong to the Reich yet. My hometown, Łódź, was included in...into the Reich. And in the beginning it was fairly good. Naturally we were struggling because it wasn't--I couldn't find work, I couldn't find nothing. But then the ghetto was built in Warsaw. We were closed in, in a, in a, in a terrible ghetto, til1942.
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