Kestenberg Archive

Ms. Z. was born in 1941, she was one of nine children. The family lived in a small town in Upper Franconia. Her father worked as an accountant in a dairy. Her mother was a pianist; she had two brothers who both died in the Second World War. Because of Ms. Z.'s father's work in the food industry he did not have to go to the war. In 1943 he volunteered in the Waffen SS and went to war. He also was a member of the National Socialist party. During the war, he was first in Holland, later in Russia. In the interview she recounts some memories of the war years. Ms. Z.'s father came back to his family at the end of 1945, after he had spent some months as a prisoner of war, captured by the Americans. After the war he had lost his work and declined other employment at the dairy. The family suffered financial hardship and distress. Ms. Z's father became an alcoholic. He was mainly quiet about the war when asked questions. The family suffered from severe poverty and social isolation. The couple was divorced and the relationship between Ms Z's father and his children was strained. In the last years of his life there was hardly contact between the interviewee and her father. ; Due to financial problems Ms. Z. left school after the 6th grade and started to work in a private household. Later she worked in the health sector. She spent seven years as a nun in a religious order (protestant). After she left the order she learned therapeutic pedagogy and music therapy and worked with disabled children, alcoholics and in a kindergarten. Ms. Z. married in 1978 at the age of 38. Her son was already two years old. She stopped working and started therapy in order to come to terms with her past, the experienced loneliness and isolation of her family and her father. At the point of time when she gave the interview she had two children, aged 11 and 6.