Herman Opatowski - November 2, 1981
Liberation
So you found your way to a DP camp or?
No this was from, as I said, from the death march.
I mean if after...
No we went, we went to the, we went uh, we uh, to meet the Russian army. Tried to find out where the Russian army is, just not to go with the German army, you understand? They runned away, they chased them, the Russians chased them already. This was in, let's say, the end of February, the beginning of March and the end of the war was uh, May, May the, the 5th. So from March to May I--until the, the other some, some--the most were, were liberated May the 5th. But I was free already.
And how did you come to the United States?
Oh to United States I came in '49 from Germany. You know, started to uh, have a normal life in Germany. I married in Germany, a girl. We had one child in Germany and we came to the United States. Relatives in the United States here from Detroit sent papers for us. So we settled here in the United States.
Do you talk to your children about, uh...
Pardon me?
Do you talk to your children about....
Oh yes. As, I told you my daughter belongs to the C.H.A.I.M And she was the one...She was young she start, she organized for the Russian Jewry, the, the--to get out the Russians Jews, ten years ago she was the one, first to organize things and she was a delegate, she was a young girl at this time, she was a delegate from Michigan to Belgium to the first convention they had. And uh, my son, as I said uh, he lives in Denver. I went now to the convention for Israel, he with his wife they went down with me. ???. My children know.
What did you think of the uh, that gathering?
I think it was wonderful, wonderful...
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