Kestenberg Archive

EH was born in November of 1932, in Vienna, to an Orthodox family. EH has one younger sister; her father worked as a salesman in a factory and her mother was a housewife. They lived in Svitenviseric. After the annexation in March 1938, her uncle was sent to Dachau and her parents started to become nervous. In 1939 her father was arrested and put on a train to Dachau, but he jumped off the train and escaped. After this incident, the family fled to Italy, first to Milan and then were sent to the Ferramonti concentration camp. In 1942, the family went to northern Italy as “Legalaconfinos”, at first to Quero Islands, then Agordo and stayed there under false identity with local Italians until 1943. After the fall of Mussolini, the family fled south to Rome. Her father hid in a room on his own and EH, her mother and her sister moved into a convent. They stayed there until July 1944 when Rome was liberated. At the convent, EH went to school, and would watch over her younger sister during the day while her mother would go to the city to meet with their father and bring him food. EH and her sister would visit him once a week, on the weekends. EH was most terrified of the bombings, especially that her mother would never come back and she would be left alone. She also remembers feeling somewhat adventurous and excited about keeping the secret that they were Jewish. EH remembers avoiding confession as part of her effort to maintain her Jewish identity. ; After liberation, in August 1944, the family moved to Aversa,then to Naples and then sailed to the U.S. They landed in New Jersey and were sent to the Oswego refugee camp. EH resented Americans for the the fact that the family was confined to the camp until January 1946. They were sent to Canada but returned to New York once they recieved visas as part of a quota. EH went to high school, made friends, and became involved in Zionist youth movements. At age 18, in 1950, EH got married, worked and went to college at night. They had two children. In 1968 they divorced and in 1970 she finally graduated from college. In 1971 she began to study social work in graduate school and started to go for therapy. She visited Europe twice in the 1970s, to see the places from her childhood.