The Stern Family
For us, this story began with a photo left at the mass grave of Jews at Pańskie a few years ago. The large, foil-wrapped photograph shows a multigenerational family, along with a description and information that they are the descendants of Leba Fejge and Nachum Stern. Unfortunately, there was no address or contact details.
We did not dare to take this photo with us, we only photographed it, and after some time it disappeared. We were still wondering who had left them, until recently Mrs. Leba Stern Sonnenberg contacted us.
The Stern family in the photos below did not come from Mszana, but from Wiśnicz. However, for some reason they came to our city during the resettlement: first from Berlin, then Krakow. The daughter of the only survivor, Izydor, unfortunately does not know all the details. However, she shared with us the story of her ancestors who were buried in our land: grandparents murdered during the massacre at Pańskie on August 19, 1942, her father's brother soon later in Rabka. The Sterns and the Sussmans lived in Mszana Dolna - Leba Fejge came from the Sussman family, but Leba Stern Sonnenberg claims that they were not related to her ancestors.
Here is the account of Mrs. Leba Stern Sonnenberg, who gave us her family history:
“My grandparents came from a small Polish town near Krakow. They moved to Berlin from Wiśnicz around 1915. Together with a large part of the family, they left Poland to escape the anti-Semitic pogroms. They were doing well in Berlin. In the spring of 1938, my father, Izydor Stern, was beaten up by a Nazi in a public place and no one helped him. He tried to convince his parents to leave Berlin before it was too late, but they believed that everything would "calm down". Nevertheless, they encouraged him - he was 17 at the time - to leave Germany and go to America. My father left his family in the summer of 1938, unaware that this was the last time he saw his parents and younger brother, Naftali. After Kristallnacht, he lost contact with his family. He spent about a year in Europe, mainly in France. He never talked about his life back then. In 1939, he was able to buy a ticket for a large ship sailing to New York. The name of the ship was "Aquatania". He did not learn about the fate of his family until 1946, when he was contacted by Moses Aftergut. My father lived with a great deal of guilt that he had left his family and always said that the Nazi who beat him actually saved his life. Here is what happened to his family: in 1940, they were expelled from Germany and sent to the Krakow ghetto, where they joined my great-grandfather Zev Wolf Sussman and the Weinig family (my great-great-grandmother, her husband and their son Benni). Apparently, when the ghetto was liquidated, some of the Jews were sent to Mszana Dolna - my grandparents and uncle spent the last two years of their lives there. Nobody knows where and when Zev Wolf Sussman and the Weinigs died, but for reasons unclear to me, they did not go with my grandparents to Mszana.
Naftali was 18 years old when he was separated from the family at the Pańskie and joined a group of young men able to work. He saw his parents die. He was killed in Rabka on January 11, 1943, in unknown circumstances.
I left the family tree at the place of the murder to show how the family, which was created thanks to my father's decision to leave Berlin, grew. This way I wanted to tell my father and grandparents that the Stern descendants had a generation of mindful Jews and that the family continued.”
Mrs.Leba learned the details of what happened to her family in Mszana Dolna from Moses Aftergutt, one of the survivors, who, together with her father's brother, Neftali Stern, was separated with a group of young men for further work: “Mr. Aftergut was friends with my uncle Naftali. In 1942, they were both young teenagers. Even though Mr. Aftergut gave his testimony to my father in 1946, my father never shared this information with me, even though I asked many times. He only told me when it was jorcait and the name of the city where they died. I found Mr. Aftergut myself after I returned from my trip to Poland in July 2013.”
Mrs. Leba established contact with the family of Moses Aftergutt. Thanks to this, we have some photos of his descendants as well. We thank her for cordial relations with us, we hope that she will visit Mszana Dolna again.
Translated by: Rachela Antosz-Rekucka
1. Leba Feige and Nachum Stern with their son Naftali before the World War 2
2. Leba Feige with her older son Izydor. He was the only survivor of the family
3. Izydor Stern in the US army in 1944. Visit of his wife, Goldie.
4. Stern family in 1923 in Berlin. From left: Josef Zev Sussman, his daughter Leibe Feige and her son Izydor (at the age of 3), her older sister, Betty Adler with her husband Gershon Adlerwho (who left Berlin in the late 1930 and came to the US)
Naftali Stern (on left) with the cousins, Herman and Nechemia Sussman
Izydor and Naftali Stern with the cousins, Sussman and Kreiger
Izydor and Naftali Stern with the cousins, Sussman and Kreiger
5. Sterns at the list of the Jews murdered on August 19, 1942. At Neftali’s name note that he did not die there. Above names of the tho children of Sussmans
6. The photograph left at the mass grave at Pańskie by the Leba Stern Sonnenberg
7. Family tree
8. Izydor Stern with his family, circa 1991. From left: Ari, Leba’s son, Leba, her daughter Michelle. Leba’s brother Nachum Naftali next to Izydor. Next Leba’s sister Rena with her husband Eli and their three children: Ariela, Nava and Asher.
9. The most recent family photo, June 2019, Bar Mitzvah if Leba’s grandson. Leba sits in yellow dress next to her oldest daughter Jordana. On the right her three grandsons: Amichai, Joseph and Gabriel. Behind Jordana stays Leba’s son-in-law Geoffrey. On the left Leba’s grandsons Noah, Julian and Jonah with their parents: Leba’s son Arim and Erin.
10. Leba Stern Sonnenberg with Moses Aftergut at the Bar Mitzvah of one of Moses’ grandsons.
