Fred Oplatka, survivor, generous donor, dies

When Holocaust survivor Fred Oplatka received a $7,000 reparations check from the Austrian government in 2001, he knew just what to do with the money.

He gave it away.

The beneficiary: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. But that was far from the only act of charity in the long life of Oplatka, a retired newspaper printer and real estate broker who died Sunday, April 8 at his San Francisco home. He was 90.

Active with B'nai Brith, ARMDI, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Café by the Bay (a local Holocaust survivor's group), Oplatka was also a longtime member of San Francisco's Congregation Beth Shalom.

But his prosperous years in the Bay Area stood in stark contrast to his young adulthood in his native Vienna. It was there that his family's successful printing business was ripped away, as the Nazi cataclysm swept over Austria. The Oplatka family lost everything.

Oplatka fled to Belgium, but was arrested and sent to a detention camp in France when the Germans invaded. His brother, Erwin, escaped to the Dominican Republic, where he was joined in 1941 by Oplatka, who landed a berth on the last free ship to leave Europe. The brothers' parents died at Auschwitz.

After 10 years in the Dominican Republic, the two immigrated to the United States, living first in Philadelphia and Miami before settling in the Bay Area.

It was here that Oplatka met Frances, his wife of 49 years. "They met through a cousin," said his son, Mark Oplatka, of Redondo Beach. "She was born in Hagerstown, Md. They were very loving. He took care of her financially, emotionally; he did everything he could for her."

As a father, Oplatka could be "very strict — but very loving, very giving.

"We did a lot of outdoor activities together. He loved to hike and ride," his son recalled. "We loved to go to Lake Tahoe, where he would swim, even when it was freezing cold."

For 25 years, Oplatka worked for the San Francisco Chronicle as a printer, retiring in 1982. But he wasn't done working. "In addition to the Chron, he worked 30 years as a real estate mortgage broker," recalled Mark Oplatka.

Oplatka's searing wartime experiences remained a rarely discussed subject in the family's San Francisco home. But eventually, his son said, Oplatka wanted to tell his story.

"He never spoke of it at all until a few years ago, when my first son was born," Mark Oplatka said. "He agreed to have his history taped by the Shoah Project. It was tough, but we convinced him that if he didn't tell someone, no one would know."

Like many other Holocaust survivors, Oplatka reached the point where he wanted to confront the past. He visited Austria many times, once taking his son. "He showed me the apartment where he lived, his school, his neighborhood. He spoke five languages, but hadn't spoken German in a long time. At one point, he asked a native for directions, and he replied, 'I know you're from here, but your German is atrocious.'"

In a 2002 interview with j. (then the Jewish Bulletin), Oplatka discussed the paltry $7,000 sum he received for his family's losses in Nazi-occupied Austria. He didn't have to ponder long before deciding to turn the funds over to Hadassah.

"It just came to my mind that hospitals could do the most with that amount," he said. "It felt so good to give it to a Jewish organization."

Fred Oplatka is survived by his wife, Frances; son Mark and daughter in-law Michele, of Redondo Beach, Calif.; and two grandchildren. Donations may be made to ARMDI (American Friends of Magen David Adom), 888 Seventh Ave., Suite 403, NY, NY 10106, or online at www.afmda.org.