Kestenberg Archive

SI was born in Cracow in 1930 into a religiously observant home. She is the youngest of six children. The family employed a Polish Catholic nurse. She attended public school and cheder. Although she was left handed, she was forced to use her right hand and she was hit by her father. The family left Cracow and moved into Tarnow ghetto in 1939. She witnessed her parents and two sisters being shot. SI worked with horses outside the ghetto. She was interned in three concentration camps Plaszow, Mielec and Flossenburg and participated in forced marches. After the War, she was admitted to a GI American hospital to recover from her wounds. She lived in Paris from 1945-1947, immigrating to Canada in 1947. In 1949 she moved to the USA. She has tried therapy many times and considers herself self submissive. She dreams about her father and suffers from nightmares so badly that she is willing to go to a dream laboratory. She regrets not finishing university. She has never married and works for a cousin. She has visited Israel ten times.