Kestenberg Archive

A was born in 1928, in Budapest, an only child. He was an active, sporty child who always spoke his mind, never mind the trouble it caused. He even refused to wear the yellow star. He was deported with his parents. He gives no details whatsoever about what happened to him during this time, only that he was liberated in Buchenwald with his father, at the age of seventeen. A's father refused to return to Budapest, and they travelled to France, arriving in Paris in June 1945. In December 1945 A returned to Budapest for a few weeks, and found that his mother had survived the war. A lived for a while in OSE Rue Spontini, where he was the youngest member. He recalls he often went to the theatre. He began to work in various jobs. Feeling very integrated, he began the process of naturalisation but never completed it as it was too complicated. He married a Hungarian woman with a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, but soon divorced. A later worked as a water ski instructor in Cannes. He had always dreamed on becoming an air pilot, and when a General in the American Air Force invited him to come and learn in his school, he jumped at the chance. However, the general died before he could finish. Instead, A studied for a real estate license in Los Angeles, where he met his second wife, born in Cuba to Lithuanian refugees. They married and worked together in real estate. Later A changed his career yet again to work as a physical therapist. He does not have any children.