Kestenberg Archive

RF was born in 1934. His father was a simple worker of German origin. At the beginning of the War, his father was identified as German, but he thought of himself to be Polish. Gestapo arrested him in Pawiak prison and then he was sent to Auschwitz where he died. His mother made her living by cleaning houses and was active in the Polish underground. Sometimes RF also helped her. As a result of the difficult economic conditions, he used to work from the age of nine in different farms during the summer. There he saw also hidden Jews. From his home in Warsaw he could observe the life in the Ghetto- the actions of Ukrainians, of the Jewish police and the secret commercial relations between Jews and Poles. At the beginning of Warsaw Rebellion in 1944 the family was sent to Auschwitz . He describes the suffering there till January 1945 when they were sent to Berlin to work in cleaning the ruins. They came back to Poland at the end of the War. Their place has been demolished so they found a cellar and lived there till 1964. His mother sent him to an orphanage because he was ill and she barely could feed him. He studied there and finished University, got married and had a daughter. He suffered nightmares but had a good family life.