Kestenberg Archive

RH was born in January 1935 in a small village in Yugoslavia, on the Hungarian border. His mother was from Zagreb and his father from Ozjek, Yugoslavia. He was an only child and his parents ran a wholesale lumber business and a general store. His parents were well respected figures within the community. They were the only Jews in their village, but the nearby town of Virovitica had a Jewish community that they often visited. As a result of his mother working so hard, RH was very close to his grandma. She died before the German invasion, and RH found her death very difficult. The Germans invaded Yugoslavia on 6th April 1941, and RH watched the army cross over the bridge near his house. RH's father had been called up to the Yugoslavian army and only returned home two months after the invasion. The Germans often came to do business with RH's parents and life continued as normal. Only once the new puppet regime of Nazi sympathisers was set up, did the harassment and troubles begin. After RH's father was beaten, they decided to leave. They went to the part of Italy under Italian control, and lived in a small village near the town of Split. There were many refugees in this area. After a while they were taken together by ship to Italy. ; They lived there for 12 - 18 months in a village called Costo Nuovo Dom, in the Piedmont area. RH spent some of that time in a boarding school in Torino (with two other refugees from the same village) and in the local village school. RH remembers the many bombing raids on Torino at night. The family were then taken to the Ferramonti concentration camp in southern Italy. This was not like Nazi camps, and they were not subject to violence and went to school and had a synagogue. There were famous athletes as inmates and they played soccer matches. All the inmates were Jewish, and while the Italian military were in charge, the inmates themselves ran the day-to-day administration of the camp. One morning they woke up to find the guards all gone. They were scared to remain in the camp as they had heard rumours of Germans doing terrible things as they retreated. They ran and hid with Italian farmers for a few days, until the Jewish Brigade entered the camp. RH remembers a lot of food being given out. They lived for a while in a villa that had belonged to fascists, and RH's mother worked as a cook in the British Officer's Club. The family were involved in a Zionist Hachsarah for a while. Moshe Sharett visited to convince the people to move to Palestine. RH's family were chosen as part of the War Relocation Authority to go to America for the rest of the war. In the summer of 1944 they travelled from Naples in a convoy of American ships, arriving in Oswego, Lake Ontario, in August 1944. They lived there for eighteen months in an enclosed compound, surrounded by barbed wire. The children went to school every day, but the adults found it very difficult. After the camp was closed in February 1946, some people returned to Europe but RH's family went to New York where his uncle lived. RH's parents worked in hotels and restaurants. They changed their name to sound more American. ; RH went to law school and was an officer in the army. He met his wife in 1952. She was born in Austria and spent the war years in France. They have two sons, one is married to a non-Jew. RH has always shared his war experiences with his sons, but he stopped talking to his parents about it a long time ago. RH has been involved in politics for a while. He does not suffer from nightmares, but is overweight. His family are Zionists.