Kestenberg Archive

FF was born in Greifswald, Germany in 1921. Her family was affluent and influential in this university town of approximately 30,000 residents. Her father was a well known lawyer. She was an only child who received a good education, and had piano and horse riding lessons. The family also owned a vaction home by the sea. She enjoyed school and was not active politically. She remembers one teacher who joined the Nazi party soon after its establishment, but neither the teachers nor the students took her too seriously. In 1939, Ms F had to join the work force (arbeitsdienst) in Greifenhagen. As she was a spoilt only child, she found this forced work awful. She first worked in a place handing out clothes and then worked in a kitchen in a hospital. For her last year, her father found her an easy job with a friend. After she completed this service, she decided to train as a MTA because she was able to stay in Greifswald while she trained. Her father was a reserve officer in the German Army and was taken as a prisoner of war in France. ; Mrs F joined and enjoyed the BDN youth group because she enjoyed music and they performed folk dances and sang songs. All her friends joined and it was fun. Their maid was the only person she knew who supported the Nazis. She is still surprised that the maid did not report her family as her father was openly critical of the Nazis. She knew that opponents of the Nazis were sent to camps but she was unaware of the persecution of Jews and only heard about the extermination of Jews after the war from films and books. Even now she has a hard time imagining that these atrocities occured under Hitler. Residents in her town did not participate in Kristallnacht. There were two Jewish girls in her class at school, but they left before the war and she thinks they emigrated. Most people in the town were busy surviving and people did not voice their political opinions. She talks about German support for Hitler because he promised to help solve the unemployment problem. She talks about Russian control of East Germany after the war.