My name
is Dr. Kieselstein. I
was born in
Transylvania. They took
us to a concentration
Camp.
I Was at
Auschwitz, Rotschweig,
Alach and Dachau.
At
Auschwitz I was
separated from my mother
and remained with my
father. For 50 years I
never knew what happened
to them. What haunts me
to this day is that I
don't know what happened
to my mother. Did she
die in a battle, of
wounds and how did her
life end? I don't know
who died first, my
mother or my sister.
This eats away at me
daily.
I decided in the
concentration camp to
become a doctor in order
to help those who had
been in the camps.
First, I went to Safed
to learn Hebrew.
Afterwards, I worked at
the Bikur Holim hospital
in Jerusalem. From there
and because my father
suffered a stroke, I
wanted to work with the
chronically ill. The
hospital was located on
Tel Hai Street. It was
not easy work. I
excelled at it for
thirty years and as a
result I was rewarded
with the "Yakir Jerusaem"
(Worthy of Jerusalem).
One of the things I did
was to put flowers in
the stairwells so when
the family visited the
parents they were able
to bring a flower to
them. I also prepared
chocolates for these
visits.
I organized of group of
7 senior citizens like
myself to learn the art
of using glass. I
procured an artist who
is an expert in this
area.
This didn’t turn out
even, should I cut it?
First color it taking
the colors from there
and then cut it.
I have to tell you that
this woman is doing very
well. She does special
things. Look at this
plate. What does it say?
Matzo. That is really
fantastic.
During a Holocaust Day
commemoration there were
50 or 60 people who had
been in the
concentration camps.
What I am doing now is
listening to their
stories from the war and
producing a sculpture of
a particular story they
relate.
When I was in Auschwitz,
Poland, I understood the
huge destruction the
Nazis had done and I
decided to make artistic
works that portrayed and
represented the
concentration camps. In
exhibitions in Germany,
I wanted to show the
Germans in a cultural
manner what they did to
us. Why did I do this?
When I was in Poland
with my granddaughter
and her high school,
they took us to see a
place that housed 1500
Jews. The Captain took
the Jews to the train
station. When the train
didn't arrive, they took
the 1500 Jews to the
forest and murdered all
of them.
This is a fantastic
story. When they got off
the train, the mother
was holding a baby. A
camp inmate advised the
mother to give the baby
to the grandmother. She
would then be able to
work. She could not
understand. The
grandmother and the baby
were killed and the
mother survived.
I feel obligated as long
as I live to make these
sculptures. I took Asher
as one example and he
will tell his story.
This sculpture
represents the roll call
in the camp,
Auschwitz-Birkenau. I
left the camp to work. I
was the only one in the
children's block to
leave the camp. When we
returned from work we
heard sirens and we were
delayed from entering
the camp for several
hours. The Germans
didn't enter the camp
until it was ready for
roll call. When I got to
the block late I had
missed the roll call. An
officer made me undress
until I was completely
naked and gave me 35
blows as punishment for
being late.
This work commemorated
the time I was taken
from my home town to
Auschwitz. This is the
Hungarian guard. We were
not allowed to drink. It
was terrible.
This man from Poland was
sent to Siberia as a
young boy wearing short
pants. There was a
tailor there who made
him a fine pair of long
pants but because they
were so nice he didn't
want to give it to the
boy and kept the pants
for himself.
I am not an artist. I
want to express myself.
It is of no interest
what an artist would say
about my work. I want to
create to tell a story.
What is important is not
how pretty it is but
what it represents.