Kestenberg Archive

JP was born in 1936 and spent her first six years of life in Felon, a district in Budapest, Hungary. Due to the threat of Nazi deportations, her nuclear family joined the extended family in another district. Together, they moved into a star house. In 1942, JP's father was taken to a Ukrainian labor camp and then in 1944 her mother was taken. She remained with her uncle's family until 7 years of age. When the uncle was sent to the Ukraine, she went to live with other children in the Wallenberg house. While there she was able to escape a Nazi massacre. Children not able to supply a name and address were taken and shot in the Danube. Her mother's friends promptly picked her up and hid JP in the basement until Russian liberation. JP's uncle survived, joined the Russian partisans and took responsibility for raising her after the war. This uncle turned the family toward modernistic communist ideas. JP joined the communist part to obtain an office job. She married at 18 years to an alcoholic gentile and gave birth at 20 years. She divorced; the father was given custody providing the Catholic grandmother and step-mother raise the girl. At 35 years, JP left Budapest for New York. Soon after, with great difficulty, her daughter and granddaughter joined her. Since then, JP has remarried to a Hungarian, alcoholic gentile. Today, JP works in retail, enjoys visiting with her granddaughter and has a desire to complete her education and learn to write in English.