While hiding in the perilous forest, the Kastens had two more children: one baby died, but Tunya, born in 1944, miraculously survived. "I recall my mother telling me that that if Tunya managed to survive she believed the whole family would, and indeed we did," Dina testified.
Throughout the family's time in the forest, the Kastens received assistance from a local peasant women, Mrs. Shostakower, who used to work with them. From time to time she would bring them food and clothes. After liberation by the Red Army, the Kastens moved to a DP camp in Austria where they had two more children, Clara and David, in 1945 and 1947 respectful. In 1948 the family immigrated to Eretz Israel.
"For almost two months after the end of the war, we still lived in the bunker, trying to figure out where to go," recalled Dina. "During this time, my mother gave me a white dress that we received from Mrs. Shostakower. I was thrilled to be able to take off the bag I was wearing and wear an actual garment, but what excited my mother most was the thought that I could leave the forest for freedom in a white dress."
Dina recently donated to Yad Vashem the very same white dress she wore as she left her hiding place 75 years ago.
Since Yad Vashem's establishment, gathering genuine artifacts has been part of the process of commemorating the destruction of European and North African Jewry. The Artifacts Department of Yad Vashem houses over 32,500 items connected to the devastating events of the Holocaust. In recent years, this mission has been kicked into high gear, in a race against the clock, before these items are lost to the passage of times and discarded as forgotten memories.
"The Nazis made a concentrated effort not only to murder the Jews, but also to obliterate their identity, memory, culture and heritage," explains Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. "For many, all that was left behind were the artworks and artifacts, photos and documents that survived the harshest of conditions. Yad Vashem is now using these artifacts to tell the stories of their owners. Through the preservation of these treasures Yad Vashem is piecing together the puzzle of the Holocaust back together item by item, giving the victims back their voice and identity, ensuring that they will never be forgotten.”
Ethel (Dina) Kasten with another girl from their time in the Vitan Forest taken in 1946