Kestenberg Archive

JP was born in Stroyno, near Munkacs, then Czechoslovakia, in 1930. She was the fourth of eight children born to an Orthodox Jewish family. In 1939 the village was occupied by Hungarians and the family shop was seized. From this time onwards JP remembers antisemitic attacks and that she stopped attending school. In April 1944 the Jews of the village were rounded up and sent first to Munkacs and then onto Auschwitz. JP's older brothers escaped and hid in the nearby forests. JP was in Auschwitz for two months before she and her younger sister were sent to Stutthof. Despite their young ages the two managed to pass numerous selections. During this time JP stopped believing in God. She was also traumatized by people's behavior in the camps, how everyone thought only of themselves. JP and her sister were in Stutthof for almost a year, at the end of which JP became apathetic and ill with typhus. In February 1945 they were taken by boat to Danzig and then marched to Buchrabin, at which point JP could not walk any further. Her sister managed to stay with her and the two were liberated there by the Russians. However the liberation was not what they had hoped for and the Russians' behavior was terrible. After the liberation the two sisters found themselves completely alone. They made their way to Bialystock, where they eventually got help from a Jewish committee and were transferred to an orphanage in Bielsk. ; JP and her sister chose not return to their home town (now in Russia) where their one surviving brother was and went instead to Czechoslovakia. JP did not see her brother again until 1973. She and her sister made Aliyah to Israel through Germany, where they spent a period in a sanatorium and studied Hebrew. During their journey to Israel the boat nearly sank and the British authorities took them to Cyprus. JP finally reached Israel in 1947 as part of Youth Aliyah. She and her sister were first sent to kibbutz Gli Yam. She was drafted into the Palmah and fought in the War of Independence. During her army service JP met her husband and she has two daughters. JP trained to be a nurse after her children were grown. JP has suffered from nightmares for much of her life. She also suffers from an inferiority complex and self pity. She feels that she passed her fears onto her oldest daughter and was over protective as a result of what happened to her. She has received reparations from Germany for fifteen years.