Kestenberg Archive

RH was born in 1931 in Munkacs which was then in Czechoslovakia, but became part of Hungary in 1938. RH had six older brothers. She recalls having a loving family before the war. She attended a Jewish school, her father worked as a tailor and was the president of the synagogue. RH recalls that there was antisemitism when the Hungarians took over. The family were sent to the Munkacs ghetto for about six months. Three of her older brothers were sent early on to the Montketable work camp in Hungary. RH was sent to Auschwitz with her mother and three other brothers. RH's mother made her promise that she would survive. Her mother was murdered a couple of weeks after their arrival. RH states that she survived Auschwitz because she never wanted to believe the reality of what was going on there. She was always warned never to volunteer for anything. Although she did not know any details, she was well aware that terrible things were happening there. It is unclear, but it appears RH was selected for another work camp. For some reason, the guards removed her from the group awaiting deportation and put her in a cage. She crawled out of it and rejoined the group, which caused a problem because now the group was one too many. The guards threatened to kill the whole group if they did not reveal who the extra person was. The other women would not let RH give herself up. The next day, they left Auschwitz by train and were taken to Unterluess. There the women had to build the labor camp themselves. When that was finished, they worked in the nearby ammunitions factory. The camp was in a forest, and they walked through the town to get to the factory. RH was in this camp for about one year, until the bombing raids began and the inmates were taken by trucks to Bergen Belsen. ; RH describes Bergen Belsen as a “nightmare”. At one point they were about to be shot into pits, but a bombing raid saved them. RH became very sick with typhus and after liberation remained there another couple of months to recuperate. After liberation, RH was reunited with her step-brother who was also in Bergen Belsen, but he died a day later. RH believed that her entire family had died. After she recovered she returned home via Prague where she was reunited with her older brother who was in Russian army uniform. He told her that all her brothers had survived and she returned to them in Munkacs. (RH does not know the details of how all her brothers survived, as they never talked about it until very recently.) RH left before the Russians closed the borders and travelled to Britain with the help of UNRA. She spent six months in Scotland at Montfort Hall. RH moved to London with two of her brothers, where she worked for the Jewish Agency. One brother moved to Israel to fight for the Jewish state, and at the same time a visa came from her relatives in America who had moved there before the war. RH moved to America, leaving her brother in London. Eventually all her brothers immigrated to the USA. ; RH married an American at the age of eighteen and had four children. She had an unhappy marriage which lasted sixteen years. Later she remarried a Polish survivor with whom she had a happy marriage, until he had an affair with a German secretary. RH is aware that these two marriages gave her children mixed messages. She also believes she has not dealt with her children well, based on her own difficult experiences. Her son lives in South Africa. Her oldest daughter lives with her father and they do not have a good relationship. Another daughter is married to a non-Jew, and the last daughter mistrusts men based on her experiences of her mother's relationships. RH works as an interior decorator.