Kestenberg Archive

JSK was born in 1938 in Furth, Germany. Her parents were social democrats but not Nazi party members and her grandfather was involved in helping Jews to leave Germany. When her street suddenly emptied of Jewish residents, JSK sat down and waited for the Jewish children to come back so that she could play with them again. JSK has vague memories of an incident in which a man was beaten and a dog left dead in a pool of blood and she is certain that this was connected with the roundups of Jews, although her mother denies that any such thing happened. Her father was sent to the western front and at some point she and her mother and sisters were evacuated to the country where they lived in a kitchen, JSK sleeping in a bath tub. In 1945 the family home was destroyed in an air raid. JSK's father did not return but since he was not declared dead until a few years later the family struggled to survive financially, living from handouts and help from JSK's grandparents. JSK's relationship with her mother was difficult and she was beaten often, her mother claiming that she was "too lively". At age twelve JSK's mother sent her away to a castle near Regensburg to study for a year. To this day JSK has an aversion to red, which she connects with the SS and Hitler Youth. ; JSK does not understand why people of her generation did not ask questions. She herself was terrified of her teachers in school after the war, wondering what they had done and where they had been. For many years JSK was convinced that she was in fact a Jewish child that her mother took in to save, since she looks Jewish and differs from the rest of her family, although her grandmother, mother and sisters have assured her this is not the case. JSK feels a sense of responsibility, although not blame, for what Germany did. JSK studied history, philosophy and literature and today puts much energy into keeping alive the memory of this period and teaching it to the next generation, as well as disseminating Jewish literature and culture.