MARTHA KENT


For generations Martha Kent's extended family were small farmers in villages on the Narew River in central Poland. In January, 1945 her family joined the millions trying to escape to the West. The family of seven children, parents, and a grandmother were imprisoned from March, 1945 until July 3, 1949 in four different locations, concentration camps, and prisons. When the family was released in 1949, the young children didn't know what freedom was or how to live free. The family's physical condition included head injuries, rickets, a poorly set fracture, malnutrition, a starvation belly, matchstick arms and legs, tuberculosis, stutters, rashes, and bruises. The brother with the head injuries has been institutionalized for decades. Lingering effects of captivity are evident in medical exams, lab tests, and in imaging studies showing compression fractures of the skull.

Dr. Kent started school in a refugee settlement called Trutzhain, the former Stalag IXa in Hessen. The family immigrated to Canada in 1952. Dr. Kent graduated from high school and attended the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and Michigan State University. Her graduate studies have included literature, linguistics, and psychology. In 1973 she completed a Ph.D. in psychology and later post-doctoral training in clinical neuropsychology.
 
Dr. Kent has held a number of teaching appointments. From 1973 until 1979 she taught at the University of Vermont where she pursued research and published on aspects of learning. Her publications have included Volume III of "The Primary Prevention of Psychopathology" and "The Vermont Competency Program" volumes.
 
For the past twenty years Dr. Kent has worked as a clinical neuropsychologist in hospital-based patient care in Phoenix, Arizona. Her work has focused on the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. Her current lectures and writing deal with the neurobiology of bonds and the experience of extreme events. The past fifteen years have also included writing the memoir, Children of the Magnificent Earth: On Captivity and Learning to Be Free. It is under review for publication.
 
In 1998 she participated in the first reconciliation of German survivors (interred 1945-1950) and Polish survivors (interred under the National Socialist Regime 1941-1945) of the concentration camp Potulice in which she was held from 1947 until 1949. She has established a web page to find survivors of Potulice. The URL of her web page is:

                 http://www.netcom.com/~markent

   Excerpts from the opening pages of Children of the Magnificent Earth