Kestenberg Archive

JS and her husband lived in Holice, Czechoslovakia. From 1942 until 1944, they were interned in Theresienstadt. In 1943, she was separated from her parents and her older sister. They left in a transport to an unknown destination. At that time, she was 23 years old. In 1944, she and her husband were sent to Auschwitz. After two months, in the summer 1944, she survived a selection, after which she was transferred to Christianstadt concentration camp. She worked cutting trees, in building, and in the production of grenades. The inmates suffered from hunger and diseases. At the beginning of 1945, a transport of women in extremely bad physical condition arrived from camps located closer to the Soviet front. Two days before the evacuation, most of these women were killed. On February 3, 1945 JS was marched to Bergen Belsen. She lost contact with her husband. Toward the evening of the first day the prisoners were pushed into a big empty barn. JS and another inmate, Erika Weiss, managed to escape from the barn. Helped by Polish and Czech workers, they arrived in Prague. They stayed at the house of Erica Weiss' sister for two days and in the house of another acquaintance, Mrs. Pilouskova, for a week. Afterwards, they went to a small village near Nymburk, 30 kilometers from Prague. They hid in the attic. As the Germans started a door to door search, they left for Holice. The Kroutil family gave them clothing, food and money, but it was too dangerous to shelter them. They returned to Prague, where they spent several nights in waiting rooms of railway stations. ; They decided to return to the area in which they were interned. They pretended that they were cousins from Slovakia. They erased the identification numbers from their arms using sulphuric acid. In a small village near the town of Ceska Lipa, they were were employed by a peasant in his garden. On the third day, the peasant went to the village and registered the young women, resulting in an interrogation by the Gestapo. Fortunately, the Gestapo believed their story, granted them new documents and even gave them a job recommendation. JS and her friend went to Steti, Czechoslovakia and worked in gardening. At the beginning of May, the Russian army arrived and the Germans fled. On the 10th of May, they received permission to leave for Prague. Erika remained there, and JS took a train to Holice. Her apartment had been confiscated by the Germans after she and her husband were deported, and the furniture was hauled away. With the help of an officer named Mr. Burian, she found out that her husband had been imprisoned in Dachau and that he was liberated by the American Army. She accompanied Mr Burian to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia where Mr. Burian was in charge of the repatriation of prisoners. JS was reunited with her husband. His toes had been amputated and he weighed ninety pounds. Mr. Burian arranged all necessary treatment for JS' husband. After a while JS and her husband returned to Holice. JS was the only survivor of her family. Later they immigrated to Argentina.