Kestenberg Archive

MB was born in 1922 in Lodz, Poland. During his childhood, his family lived for a while in a village near Lodz but eventually returned to Lodz. His father was a watch repairer, and MB planned to go into the same profession. MB had one older sister and one younger sister. Until the age of seven, MB went to a Jewish school where they spoke Yiddish. After this he went to a public school with a mix of Germans, Poles and Jews. MB only had Jewish friends. MB never attended high school because they could not afford it. He describes the antisemitism in pre-war Poland which made it hard to earn a good living. He remembers the German invasion and states that there was immediately violence against the Jews in Lodz. MB wanted to go to Russia, but his parents refused because they did not believe the war would last a long time. At one point the family went to Warsaw, but the starvation was even worse there so they returned to Lodz in January 1940. MB was in the Lodz ghetto for the entire time it was in existence (four and a half years). He speaks of Mordechai Rumkowski, whom he greatly disliked. ; From June 1940 MB made straw boots for the army. In June 1944 his younger sister died of starvation. MB greatest trauma in the ghetto was the “Sperre of July 1942” when Rumkowski had to provide the Germans with 20,000 children from the ghetto. He called to the people to “give children as a sacrifice”. At one point, MB was able to save his mother from a selection by pulling her out through a barbed wire fence. In August 1944 they could hear Lodz being bombed and the Germans liquidated the ghetto, claiming they were taking the Jews somewhere safe away from the enemy who would punish them for helping the German war effort. They were taken in cattle trucks to Birkenau, arriving on the 10th August 1944. MB was separated from his mother and sister, whom he never saw again, and was left with his father. Almost immediately his father became paralysed. They were in the quarantine section. MB pretended he had skills as a watch repairer and received good food every day of the six weeks he was there. The Germans asked for those skilled in engineering, and his father forced him to volunteer. MB was taken to Gurlitz camp, where he worked in the Wehrmacht Fabrik with 10,000 other workers making weapons. MB later found out his father died two days after he left Birkenau, and still feels guilty that he left him. MB made friends with the communist workers in the factory who gave him food and a razor blade. ; In Mid-February 1945, they were taken on the death march away from Gurlitz. MB estimates that only 20% of the men survived this march, while 80% of the women survived, claiming that the women were much stronger. After a few weeks the Germans took them back to Gurlitz, but MB was too weak to march back and he was transported back by truck. The Russians liberated them on May 8th, and MB moved out into a beautiful villa well-stocked with food. After six weeks he was well enough to travel and he returned to Lodz in attempt to find his family. As soon as he returned, a Polish policeman robbed him of everything he had. MB travelled around Europe registering with Jewish committees in case anyone was looking for him, but he was the sole survivor from his family. He managed to contact a cousin in Manchester and arrived in England in September 1946. MB is married with children and six grandchildren. He lost his religious faith, but he educated his children in religion. He hates Poles more than Germans, as he always suffered antisemitism from them, both before and after the war. He also blames the British for not doing more to prevent what happened, but is also grateful to the country for providing him with a home and freedom. MB does not read books or watch television shows about the Holocaust, but talks about it to his family. He collected money and opened a memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Manchester where they hold annual services in memory of Holocaust victims.