Kestenberg Archive

FZ was born on June 12, 1942. Her father was an artist (poet, photographer, and painter), and an active Zionist and her mother was active in the Labor Zionist movement. She has two younger sisters who were born after the war. When FZ was born, her parents were living in the Brailov ghetto in Ukraine to where they had escaped from Poland. They opened a clothing factory in the ghetto to remain alive. The night before FZ was born, her mother was smuggled into Shmerinka, a neighboring town on the border of Romania. Soon after, the rest of the family joined them. FZ survived the war years with the help of her mother and other Jewish women who would all nurse her. The family survived the bombings of the city and the roundups by hiding and due to personal connections with their clients. When the war was over and FZ was 3 years old they went to Vienna and then to the Bombaire (?) DP camp. Her father created a Jewish theater in the camp. Then they left to the US on the “Earny Pyle” arriving on April 1, 1947. FZ started school and tried to integrate. ; She excelled in school. In high school, FZ joined Habonim youth movement and in 1960, at age 18, she came to Israel and lived on a kibbutz. She then decided to return home and was raped by a sailor on the boat back to America. She went to City College and got married but later divorced. She has two children. FZ has a difficult relationship with her mother whom she felt did not allow her to develop her natural talents in the field of art and academia. She also feels that her relationship with her mother has a detrimental effect on her personality.