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My name is Dr. Martin Kieselstein and I was born in Transylvania in 1925.

I was raised in a family of four: my parents, my sister and myself. After the Hungarians occupied the region, I studies in a Hungarian Catholic school. When the Germans invaded to Hungary, I was forced to leave my educational studies and look for work as a blacksmith.

In the year 1944, I was taken to the ghetto, together with my family, and from there the Germans transported us to Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, men were separated from women. Families were torn apart. My sister went with my mother and I with my father. By the end of the war, the Germans transferred us to Dachau, from where I was released in 1945. I lived only with my father through the entire period of the war, so I never knew what actually happened to my mother and my sister.
Sixty years later, I received information about them and was told that the Germans had sent them to dig under tank trenches. It was probably there that they found their death.

After the war ended, my father and I returned to our empty house in our hometown. I then began my studies of medicine, which has been my lifetime profession. In 1959, we immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where I have lived ever since. Sadly, my father became ill and was put into a hospital for chronic diseases. I then decided to work in that hospital, so that I could support him, day by day.

Now, upon the age of my retirement, that I am free to meditate, I feel the need to express, in my own way all that has happened to me and to our people, during the time of the holocaust.
I also feel committed to leave some memoirs to my grandchildren who will pass it on to their children when the time will come.

At first I chose to create with enamel, combined with other materials.
Lately I began to work with glass in various techniques. The Olive wood, which appears in some of the works, symbolizes for me the significance of the bonds to our roots in this place - the state of Israel. (Dr. Martin Kieselstein).

Dr. Martin Kieselstein was the recipient for the “Distinguished service to Jerusalem award”, on behalf of his multi-faceted work for the elder community in Jerusalem.

Exhibition: Dr. Martin Kieselstein