The Story of Moshe Senensieb and Ester Kraut
Moshe Senensieb 1919 – 1990 and Ester Kraut 1922 – 2021
Moshe Senensieb and Ester Kraut were born to Jewish families in Rzeszow, Poland. Moshe was born in 1919 and died in Nottingham in 1990. Ester was born in 1922 and died in London in 2021.
Ester and Moshe were high school sweethearts. In 1939, aged only 17 and 20, they escaped from Nazi-occupied to Russian-occupied Poland. The Russians deported them to a labour camp in the Ural Mountains, where they faced hard labour, extreme cold and hunger, before being released 14 months later. They were distanced from the Nazis in Stalin’s remote, brutal labour camps and this ultimately saved them from a worse fate under Hitler.
Their release presented new problems, living for 5 years as refugees in war time Soviet Union. When they were repatriated to Poland after the war, their families were no longer alive. Ester lost her parents and her only sister. Moshe lost his parents and three of his six siblings.
Alongside Moshe and Ester’s story, the presentation highlights the historical and political events that had a crucial effect on their lives. It outlines the rise of the Nazis, their racial policies and the systematic murder of European Jews.
After the war Moshe and Ester rebuilt their lives in Israel. Ester became a primary school teacher, and Moshe had a successful business career. In the mid-sixties Moshe’s business took them to Italy. In later life they moved to England to be near their children.
Ester and Moshe’s story is presented by their daughter, Aliya. Excerpts from a book Ester wrote and quotes from Moshe’s account of the story are used in the presentation (read by Ester’s great-granddaughter and Moshe’s grandson). These describe eloquently their normal early lives, which were followed by the shock of finding themselves in a Soviet labour camp, their struggles after their release and their eventual route to safety.
Presented by Aliya Middleton
Aliya was born in a displaced persons camp in Northern Italy and grew up in Israel. She studied Biochemistry at Jerusalem and Cambridge universities, then pursued a career in Bio-Medical research at Nottingham University Medical School. After retirement she served as a magistrate which she found interesting and rewarding. She and her husband now live in London and enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren.
The story Aliya tells about her parents’ exile to remote parts of the Soviet Union is little known. It is the story of many Polish Jews who had similar experiences and survived the Holocaust through suffering atrocious conditions at isolated Soviet labour camps.