Hermann
and Else Sternschein
Two years after Hermann Sternschein’s first wife
Else,
née Friedberger, had passed away, he married Else Hellmann, who was 24 years
his junior. (The photo shows the couple after their marriage at Lake
Constance in 1935.) At the beginning of 1937, Else gave birth to their
daughter Ruth. The girl was the last baby to be born to the formerly large
Jewish community of Laupheim.
After 1933, the restaurant and wine trading were faced with massive boycotts
and the formerly flourishing wine business came to a complete halt. This
resulted in the economic ruin of the family.
The big restaurant was subject to expropriation in 1936, and the family was
forced into very humble living conditions.
The new restaurant owners soon
renamed the house to „Deutsches Haus“(German House), which for the Nazis was
a perfect example of “successful aryanization“.
The family didn’t have enough to live, but too much to die”, is how
David
Sohari
characterized this situation later.
In the so-called Kristallnacht (Night of broken glass), Hermann Sternschein
was threatened with a revolver, arrested and brought to the Dachau
concentration camp together with other Jewish citizens from Laupheim.
His hope that the medals once awarded to him for being a front-line
soldier for four years during the First World War could save him were in
vain. After having been severely
mistreated, he returned to Laupheim on Dec. 18, 1938 in poor condition. His
daughter Esther Chafri wrote: „At the age of 55 he came back from the
concentration camp, alive, but a mentally broken man. “
The regime tried to destroy the
self-confidence of any Jewish individual.
Humiliations by the Nazis were ceaseless. Here’s a quote from the
„Laupheimer Kurier“, dated September 7th, 1939, only a few days after the
invasion of the German army in Poland; titled
Jewish Insolence. “The Jew
Sternschein, known all over town for his arrogant behavior, recently dared
to greet a member of the German Wehrmacht with the German salute “Heil
Hitler”, then asking him how things were going. Obviously, he thought that
the soldier would not notice that he was a Jew and would start a
conversation with him. Now, being in jail, Sternschein has enough time to
think about his insolent attitude”. As a matter of fact, Hermann Sternschein
was rigorously interrogated, but finally released after several days of
arrest. Hermann Sternschein
considered himself a German patriot. This is illustrated by the following
advertisement: „We offer price reductions for Reichswehr forces”, which he
announced in
1924.
Staying in Laupheim was no longer an option: In 1939 Hermann and Else
Sternschein felt forced to emigrate with their little daughter Ruth. The
elder children had already left Germany. The required affidavits from the
United States were hard to obtain. Carl Laemmle wrote that he had already
done the utmost possible with signing 360 affidavits; finally support came
from Else’s emigrated brother. At the beginning of 1940, Hermann Sternschein
managed to emigrate to New York before his wife. It was always a humiliating
procedure when Else Sternschein and her little daughter Ruth were called for
audition at the Gestapo in Stuttgart, and only after several iterations did
they manage to get the permission to emigrate. With a flight ticket to
Madrid, mother and daughter got out of the country literally “last minute”.
It was shortly before the USA entered into the war against Nazi Germany.
After that, emigration would not have been impossible any more.
Simple jobs such as cleaning services kept the family alive.
„My father didn’t have a good ending in America“, said his son David later.
Max
Sternschein
After graduating from school, he completed a commercial training in a
leather company in Ulm. He had a job there until it was forbidden by the
Nazis.
After the 1938 November pogroms, he was also arrested, and taken into
“protective custody” from Ulm to the Dachau concentration camp. After having
been released in early 1939, he emigrated to New York. We could not find out
more about his further fate.
Kurt Sternschein,
later known in Israel as
Israel David Sohari
„Until 1933 it was beautiful;
we really loved our home town Laupheim“,
This is how David put it even after
60 years abroad.
David
Sohari
(Kurt
Sternschein) and Ilana Sohari,
Ramot
Meir/Israel
Kurt Sternschein attended the Jewish elementary school together with
Siegfried Einstein, and from 1929 secondary
school. He used to play soccer with the local talents Rudolf Rechtsteiner
and Emil Esswein.
For two years he attended a trade school in Ulm and received business
training at the company Sternweiler und Schlesinger (Herbo). According to
David, the hatred could be felt in the air soon after 1933. It could be
heard in horrible and racist songs. “Things got worse overnight”, he said
later. He took a job with the Jewish farmer Hermann Nördlinger in
Buttenhausen which allowed him to prepare himself for emigration.
There it was better and calmer than in Ulm. “You tried to get your daily
bread“, he had recalled.
Before he turned 16 years old, he joined the Youth Aliyah to get to Erez,
Israel. He went from Karlsruhe to
Marseille by train and continued the rest of the journey by ship.
“Thanks to the emerging hatred in Germany I was warned and saved”, is how he
put it later. In the beginning, he lived and did farm work in the Kibbutz
Tel Josef and Tel Hai. It was a life of hardship and hunger. He soon wanted
to return to Laupheim. This is what he wrote to his father in 1937. “Stay
where you are and eat dry bread”, was the immediate response. David managed
his way through these years. Then, he met his wife Ilona who was born in
Berlin. In 1948 they married in the young state of Israel. On May 28th,
1949 their son Ruben was born. Ilona suffered from the displacement her
whole life. In a way, she had taken the very last train from Berlin in 1941.
David Sohari settled in in the little village Ramot Meir close to Tel Aviv
and became a farmer with land of his own. He ran a farm and agricultural
business, which his son Ruben, a graduate of agricultural studies, continued
intensely. Goods included, and continue to include flowers, rare exotic
fruit, but also nectarines, peaches and citrus fruits. Up to today, they
have continued to adjust the product offering to accommodate the market and
wholesaler demands.
In 1968, David and Ilona
Sohari visited Germany for the first time after their emigration.
They also went to Laupheim and Mannheim. In the latter city, they visited
the writer
Siegfried Einstein, his teenage friend from
Laupheim. More Laupheim visits followed in 1987 and in 1988, when he was
officially invited with other Jewish citizens originating from Laupheim by
the town authorities.
Until his death, David was mentally
vibrant and interested in getting news from Laupheim.
“Before 1933, Laupheim was a paradise for me. With the Nazis all the
beautiful things came to an end.” Sorrow sets the tone for the words that
David Sohari used to express his youth under the name of
Kurt Sternschein.
See
the picture rigth from 2014.
Ilse
Sternschein,
later known in Israel as
Esther
Chafri
In 1933, when she was only eleven years old, her world broke apart. Her
mother died and the Nazis destroyed their harmonic life in Laupheim.
Whoever go to know her, cannot forget her. At least that’s what her friends
and relatives said. She did not have an easy living, but she was an
extraordinary person. She wrote:
„In our town the Jewish elementary school went to the fourth grade. From
the 5th grade on, there were secondary and junior high schools for those
intending to continue their education. But after 1936 Jews were no
longer allowed in these institutions. Already in the first years of the
Nazi regime life became unsupportable, particularly in the small towns
and villages, where everybody knew and observed everyone. Even my German
(non-Jewish) girlfriend gave up her relationship with me over time“.
There was only one flaw on her report cards from 1933 on: the swastika
on each page. She was an excellent student. Her school report was handed
over to the Yad
Vashem archive. Esther
continues as follows:
“When I graduated from school in 1936 after eight years of schooling, I
wanted to learn professional sewing, but being Jewish I wasn’t allowed
to attend the vocational college. So I started a job at a garment
factory that was run by Jews. I was quite successful and earned good
money, but this episode also came to an end. In a “clearance sale” the
company got into “Aryan hands”. It was another severe blow for me and my
family as we were forced by the Nazi regime to move to another house.
Under these circumstances, every new day imposed another heavy load on
the hearts of all of us. In the
“Kristallnacht”
my father was arrested. They
brought him to the Dachau concentration camp. There, something happened
that would leave a decisive mark on the future. Along with my father,
they had also detained my Jewish ex-teacher, Mr. Heinz Säbel. He was a
young and progressive man. It was he who could finally convince my
father to allow his 16 year old daughter to join the Youth Aliyah and go
to Erez, Israel. Nonetheless, he still
acted against his inner feelings.
„What
is it you want in the desert”,
was what he stated. But my elder brother (David) had already immigrated
to Israel in 1936.
I remember having had a hard time fitting in to the new situation in the
preparation camp north of Berlin. I had a strong Swabian accent and only
a few people could understand me. Many times, my pronunciation alone
gave way to outbursts of laughter.
Despite having signed the papers, my parents were actually against my
emigration to Israel. They
rather wanted me to go with them to the United States. However, I
managed to go my way.
I was among the youngest in
the preparation group. On January 1st, 1939 my father
accompanied me on the way to Munich to say good bye, where I joined the
group departing by train. I only saw him again shortly before his death.
“
Esther and
Ilitsch
Chafri im
Kibbuz
Maabarot in
Israel
“In the beginning we lived in tents, later in shantytowns with 4 people per
room”, reported Esther about the start in Israel. The Kibbutz Maabarot
already had a children’s home with bullet-proof concrete walls when Esther
started to work there in the early forties. For decades she was in charge of
child care and education. In these times, all the children of the community
lived almost all the time in the children’s home. Her husband Elijahu,
nicknamed Ilitsch, was six years older and was the electrician of the
Kibbutz until reaching retirement age.
In the first years, one of Ilitsch’s tasks was to fight the
mosquitos. For weeks he was busy spraying poisonous “greengrass” dust in the
swamps. Nevertheless, malaria continued to be the major plague in the
pioneer years.
Esther and Ilitsch were highly respected in their community. As active
members they contributed largely to the change from the originally 100%
agriculture-based Kibbutz to an economic community geared towards industrial
production of food and pharmaceuticals. Today, beautiful family houses, a
swimming pool, a school, and a community center are visible signs of the
commitment of the community members.
Their daughter Rea Davisch lives with her
family in Maabarot;
the other daughter Orit Dalman lives in the
neighbor town Nathania.
Their son Ilan Chafri
moved with his family to Philadelphia
in the United States.
Ruth
und Guenther
Bechhofer
Ruth was the last child born to the Jewish community of Laupheim.
“Why do these men look so evil?” asked little Ruth when she and her mother
had to show up again at the Gestapo office in Stuttgart attempting to get
the required permits for emigration. As she could not find an appropriate
baby sitter in Laupheim, Ruth’s mother always had to take the little girl
with her on these repeated trips to the demeaning auditions in Stuttgart.
Six months after Hermann Sternschein had left the country, Else and their
little daughter could finally follow him. A flight to Madrid was the late
rescue. From there it was by train to Lisbon and then by ship to New York.
It’s hard to imagine such a journey taking place at the beginning of the
Second World War.
Ruth grew up in NYC. The German language was a no go, that’s how the little
child experienced it. Every time her father picked her up at the
Kindergarten, he had to speak English. “If you speak German with me, I’m
going to run away”, was her usual threat.
After school and vocational training she worked in school administration,
lastly as assistant director at a
large school. She has visited Germany several times, with Laupheim being a special
destination. She has developed many good contacts and friendly relationships
with some of the Laupheim residents from these visits. Guenther Bechhofer
from Bechhofen/F ranken,
born in 1927, is still a high school teacher for American literature and
history.
Else
and
Ruth
Sternschein, approx. in 1948.
Ruth
and Guenther
Bechhofer.
STERNSCHEIN,
Hermann, 
Restaurant "Zum Kronprinzen",
