Kestenberg Archive

BG was born in 1929 in Pawiak, Poland to a traditional family with six children. He is the sole survivor from his family. In 1939, his family was transferred to Kalushki. BG worked as a shepherd for a priest and stayed in the pasture with the herd when the Germans would hunt for Jews. In 1941, his identity was discovered and his family went back to Pawiak. Soon after they were transferred to Lodz. While in the ghetto BG registered his brother for work, and soon after his brother was sent to a concentration camp never to return. To this day, BG feels guilty for his brother's death. When BG was 11 years old, he was separated from the rest of his family and sent to Auschwitz. In Auschwitz his job, along with a group of children, was to collect and sort the valuables of the arrivals. They then were sent to Birkenau to the Gypsies camp and then back to Auschwitz where they learned to build and worked for a private construction company. At the end of the war they departed on the death march and walked from Oranienburg to Gunskirchen, to Mauthausen and to Lieberose. On the march they were forced to do physical labor in the freezing cold, starving and BG witnessed Jews cooking body parts from the deceased. ; The Americans liberated them at Leiberose and took them to Belz or Linz. BG joined the Brigade Hachshara along with his group of friends in Italy. They made aliyah and BG was sent to Kibbutz Alonim. BG then left the kibbutz and moved to Kiryat Tivon and worked in construction. He then lived in Ashdot Yaakov and enlisted in the army for two years. Afterwards he lived in Havatzelet and worked for the electric company. BG moved to Tel Aviv for a while and then he met his wife, got married and moved back to Havatzelet. BG has three children and four grandchildren.