Kestenberg Archive

TP was born in Otusz near Poznan in August 1928 where her father was the manager of the local ementary school. The family were affluent with four girls and one boy. At the beginning of the war they tried to unsuccessfully escape. The new manager of their village, a German, told her father that he was wanted by the Nazis so he hid in another district where he worked as a bookkeeper on some farms. In March 1943 the family all got arrested. The parents and the elder sisters perished in concentration camps. Only TP and her brother Olek succeeded in surviving the difficult conditions of the Lodz Youth Camp. She describes the misery of their life, the awful hunger, the brutal punishments of Bayerowa, Pohl and other members of the staff, the difficult work and very poor health conditions. For some time she was sent to the farm of Dzierzaznia. Although other survivors described it as a better place than Lodz camp, she doesn't see it like this. During the most time of the interview she was crying. After liberation, her life was very much influenced by the diseases caused by the camp: nerves and heart diseases, rheumatism and wounds from cold. Teresa had difficulties in studying and in working. Although it is very difficult for her to talk about the camp, she believes that it's very important to testify about it for the future generations, to warn mankind about the possibility of such atrocities. Jozef Witkowski asks her about her attitude towards Germans- she can't forgive them their cruelty. She doesn't hate Jews and knows that they suffered greatly. Her awful experience during the war didn't shake her belief in God.