Kestenberg Archive

YL was born in 1930 in Lodz, Poland. She had an older sister and an identical twin sister. In April 1940, the family were forced to move into the ghetto. At the beginning of 1942, YL's parents were sent to the Chelmno death camp where they were gassed together with 55,000 other Jews from the Lodz Ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated in August 1944, YL and her sisters were deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. After a harrowing three day journey in freight vans without any food, they arrived in Auschwitz in a transport numbering approximately 3000 people. During the selection, YL was separated from her sisters. Her sister HS approached Josef Mengele, one of the SS officers in charge and pleaded for them to stay together. When she mentioned, that YL and M were twins, Mengele told YL to join her sisters and they were sent to a women's camp. ; A few days later, HS was sent to Bergen Belsen and the twins were taken to the local hospital situated in the Zigeunerlager gypsy camp. She describes Mengele and the fact that he was present at all the experiments, the camp hospital and the medical procedures to which they were subjected. She also talks about a family of Jewish dwarves from Hungary who now live in Haifa. They used to carry stools around with them so that they could rest frequently. The Germans enjoyed watching them since they found them amusing. The twins were subjected to examinations until liberation in January 1945. YL survived the camps and made aliyah. At the time of the interview, she lived in Afeka.