Biographical essay by Gary Sternberg, 2014

1 My name is Gary Sternberg. My name was originally Gerd when I was born on August 25, 1931, in Cuxhaven, Germany. Ours was a small town of about 35,000 residents in a beautiful resort and fishing community. My sister Ruth was born a year and a half before me. Cuxhaven 2 My father, Herman, came from a very well to do orthodox Jewish family in Germany. My mother, Augusta, was Christian; she was born in Poland where living conditions were terrible. After relocating to Germany and before she was married she worked for an orthodox Jewish family and while there she learned all the Jewish customs and expressions. She was a walking dictionary on Yiddishe expressions. My mother raised both my sister and I in the Christian faith, but it was she who made sure that my father would properly observe all the Jewish holidays. I can remember a beautiful Hanukkah menorah that was proudly lit each of the eight days on Hanukkah, and also I loved matzos on Passover. We also celebrated the Christian holidays, especially Christmas and Easter. We had the best of both worlds. My father had been a medic in World War I and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery under fire. When he was forced out of Germany because he was Jewish, he threw the medal (his prized possession) overboard in disgust as the ship he was on sailed away from Europe to Shanghai. Iron Cross After The Great War (WWI) he worked in military hospitals and got the training he needed to create his professional career. He was mainly a chiropodist, but he also made artificial limbs, trusses and other medical devises. I have some great memories from my early childhood. We lived at No.1 Dohrmannstarasse on the first floor of a beautiful, two story house. We had a great yard and a creek that flowed along side. We lived a block from the sea dike, the beach and the North Sea, which, for children and adults alike was like a giant playground. 3 Ruth and I in our garden next to the house, decorated with flowers to participate In the Annual ?Flower Fest? ?Kugelbake? Cuxhaven?s Land Mark and Logo By around age 7, I began to notice the tension created by the Nazis. In school we were made to see anti-Semitic propaganda films. One of these films that was especially disturbing to me showed a grotesque looking man with a large nose who was supposed to be a Jew. This man fled in a car while a policeman and a crowd chased him calling out ?stop the Jew.? A Hitler Youth all tricked-out in his Nazi uniform (like a boy scout) stands fearlessly in the middle of the street with the car approaching at high speed. He throws a brick into the windshield causing the car to go out of control and hit a tree. The man was bloodied and, despite his obvious injuries, they pulled him out of the car and the policeman and mob beat him. The Hitler Youth, shown in his uniform, was then given a medal in front of cheering crowd for his heroism and courage for knowing how to handle the Jew. There were not many Jews in our town and I was probably the only one in my class with a Jewish parent. Though I was Christian, I was scorned as a Jew. 4 On June 14, 1938, there was banging on the front door. The Gestapo forced their way in and arrested my father and he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. At first we had no idea where he was; he ended up being in that camp for about eight months. Our family had some influential friends in town. One was a wealthy widow named Frau Reineke; we were sure that she helped my dad get out of Sachsenhausen. When my father was released and came home, my mother took a good look at him, tears ran down her face and she cried out ?Herman what did they do to you?? He was emaciated, pale, and had dark circles under his eyes. My mother immediately went food shopping and was able to get some meat for him from the butcher because she told him my father was just released from the Concentration camp. My father would not talk about his camp experiences while he was still in Germany. He tried to go to a friend, a wealthy Jewish ship building engineer by the name of Weinberger, and warn him to leave Germany. Weinberger felt he was too important to the Germany military and would be safe. Even before we left Germany, Weinberger?s wealth was confiscated and doled out to them in small allowances. I have no idea what happened to him or his family. When my father finally did talk about the camp he only talked about a few of many atrocities. He spoke of a non-Jewish man who was of some German royalty who had opposed the Nazis. He was forced to stand in a pit and eat human feces with a spoon while the Nazis stood around and laughed. He died shortly thereafter. My father also saw the Nazis rip an infant from its mother?s arms and slam it against a wall. He The Eternal Jew was one of the Anti-Semitic films made by the Nazis Prisoners in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, December 1938 5 himself was hit in the head with a rifle butt, but got some leniency because he was able to treat the feet of the Nazi guards. He did not tell us any of this until we were all reunited in Shanghai. After his release from Sachsenhausen my father had only a few weeks to leave Germany or else he would be imprisoned again. The only country open to us was China. When my parents tried to book passage there was only one spot available on the ship. We insisted father go because he was in immediate danger. We were Christians and thought we would be safe. He left for China by himself World War II started in September 1939. At first all the Germans were elated that Germany was able to conquer Poland in just a few weeks. My mother was from Poland and knew the Poles didn?t have much of an army. Shortly afterwards England entered the war and conducted frequent bombing raids over our town. We spent many a night in the bomb shelter shivering from cold and fear. Now that the war was on, the food shortages became more severe. Also, we started running out of money and hunger was a constant companion. My mother couldn?t find work because she was married to a Jew. One day my mother got word that she was to go to a particular restaurant and there she was hired with no questions asked. Why? Probably the restaurant was owned by Mrs. Reineke. Now we had some income and my mother learned to be a waitress and made even more money. Meanwhile we tried to get out of Germany. Mother wrote letters and tried to speak with people who might be able to assist us. The JOINT (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Refugee Aid) helped get people out of Germany and my father worked on our exit from his end in China. . . German planes over Poland, Sept / Oct, 1939 6 Arrangements were made and we left our beautiful Cuxhaven and went to Berlin where my mother had a sister, my aunt Annie, her husband Kurt and their daughter Waltraut. My Aunt Annie took us in despite the risks associated with helping Jews. There were bombings and we spent many nights in bomb shelters where (in spite of the risks) people made jokes about Hitler and Goebbels. People were nice to us and I even played with some kids. Of course, the kids didn?t know my father was Jewish. People in Cuxhaven and Berlin encouraged my mother to divorce my father so she would be free of her Jewish husband and would not have to go to China. She would not hear of it. We could finally leave Germany. There were no longer any sea passages available so our only option was to travel overland via the Trans-Siberian Railway through to Manchuria. We left on September 20, 1940, and traveled over three weeks. We stopped in Moscow and stayed at the Metropol Hotel. It was very luxurious. We were there for three days and then took the trans-Siberian Railroad. It was a nice train with a great dining car. I remember counting 53 tunnels as we traveled around the scenic Lake Baikal. Then we crossed the border from Siberia into Manchuria and we were in territory occupied by the Japanese. Japanese troops were lined up on the station platform in battle gear with fixed bayonets. I was only 9 years old at the time and that scared me. Then the soldiers stationed themselves, one in each car. When the train started moving, the soldier forcefully pulled down the shades and we could no longer look outside. Apparently, there were military installations they didn?t want us to see. We stayed in Harbin, Manchuria (Also known as the little Jerusalem of the Orient) in a crummy hotel overnight. Then we took a filthy Chinese train overcrowded with Berlin circa 1900 Berlin, after the war in 1945, women washing their clothes 7 people. We made our way to a seaport city on the Yellow Sea. When we got to there we took a pedicab to the dock. The area was filthy and stinky. There we boarded a small, rusty Japanese ship that looked like a tramp steamer. By this time we figured that everything in the Orient either stinks or looks terrible. It took us about three days on that dirty ship under horrible conditions to cross the Yellow Sea. We arrived in Shanghai. on October 10, 1940, and my father met us at the dock. The area called Shusan Road was known as ?little Israel? and had delis and stores. People spoke German and Yiddish. We settled into a one-bedroom flat near a Japanese military installation. There were open sewers and the area stunk! It was very primitive, but we had a balcony. Father set up shop and made medical appliances for the local Jewish hospital so we had some income. We lived there about a year. The Japanese were very cruel to the Chinese, but had high regard for Germans and did not distinguish between Jews and Christians. We had it much better than the Chinese. Shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked we heard artillery fire. There was an American ship in the port. It tried to leave but the Japanese sank it. I was admitted to a Christian Missionary school where English, math, etc. were secondary to religion. The good part was we were given hot meals. There were also other European refugees there. This was in Hongkue in the worst part of Shanghai. Though it was bad there, it was still better than being murdered in Germany! One day we had to leave because our home was outside the area that had been designated for a Jewish ghetto. This scared us because the Germans were allied with the Japanese and we didn?t know what to expect. We had a couple of weeks to move to the ghetto. This was in 1942. There were five ?heimes? or homes set up. It was almost impossible to find a place in the ghetto among the Chinese and Jewish refugees. We moved to the Choufong (Chaonfoong) Road to one of the homes. This particular one had been a Chinese university. We moved in with 50 ? 60 people in a room. There was not much personal hygiene and there were bed bugs. Mother had been so neat and clean before the war and this was really hard on all of us. My father was working at the Jewish hospital. A while later we were able to move to a better building in the camp. Even though we lived with four other families in one room, the four of us were together. We were on the 3rd floor with lots of other people. It was horrible but better and cleaner than any of the other buildings. 8 There were rumors about what was going on in Germany. We knew about the murder camps because my father and others had been in one. People were also worried about families left behind. After the attack on Pearl Harbor things got worse. We got some much needed help from some very generous Sephardic Jews who had been in China for generations and were very wealthy. There was a woman named Margolis who went to the Japanese and demanded things for the Jews. Her argument was that the Japanese already had their hands full fighting the war and dealing with the Chinese and shouldn?t have to deal with possible Jewish protests and unrest. The Japanese thought it would be better just to keep the Jews quiet. I was able to change schools and started going to the SJYA ? Shanghai Jewish Youth Association School. Learning Japanese had become compulsory. I did not have to study Christian religion anymore like I did at the Missionary school. 1945. Shanghai was bombed by the US Army Air Force. My dad had been a medic so when the ghetto was bombed by mistake he went out to help the wounded and came back covered in blood. We were horrified and thought that he badly injured. Some 30 ? 40 Jews were killed in that bombing raid and more were wounded. Group portrait of German-Jewish refugee children at the SJYA school Physicians work at the Jewish hospital in the ghetto 9 We were living in a kind of camp with guards who kept order among the thousands of refugees. No Chinese were allowed in there. One day the Japanese disappeared. That is how we learned the war was over. When I think back to wartime Shanghai, I realize that things were very bad. Where we were you could see dead beggars in the street. Dead babies were wrapped up and left outside. We got food from a communal kitchen and before we could eat the half -baked bread we had to pick the bugs out of it. There was a Japanese military officer in charge of the ghetto who was known as ?King of the Jews?. His name was Gohya. He was sometimes physically abusive and because he was very short he would stand on his desk and beat people on the head. We heard terrible rumors about dangers to come. One example of a rumor was we would be next to be hit with an atomic bomb because of all the Japanese military installments nearby. After the war we moved out of the camp. We stayed in Shanghai until 1948. We applied for a visa to go to the US and when everything was arranged to come, we went on a converted military transport ship to the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii and then to San Francisco. The passengers were all refugees from Shanghai, and when we landed in Honolulu the entire Jewish community came out to greet us. We were so overwhelmed that most of us were in tears. They took us to the Jewish Community Center were the tables were decked out with an abundance of food and fruit. We were only there for a day. Then we boarded busses and we were taken all around that incredible island. From a high vantage point we could see Pearl Harbor with so many ships sticking out of the water. It was a horrible reminder of war. We were each given a sack of oranges to take with us. The whole experience was overwhelming. We went on to San Francisco and when we passed the Golden Gate Bridge, I asked where the Statue of Liberty was. I was 17 at the time and genuinely did not realize it was on the opposite side of the country. Golden Gate Bridge 10 The JOINT helped Jewish refugees get settled and that included us as well as the refugees coming from Europe. They initially put us up in a little hotel for about three months. Then we were sent to Cleveland, Ohio by train. It would be easier for us to find housing and jobs if we didn?t all cluster in the same big cities. We settled in Cleveland with some other refugees from Shanghai. We lived on Edmonds Street. I found a job working for an electrician and a locksmith in the same store. We got a loan from the JOINT which we repaid as soon as we could, but it wasn?t easy because my father couldn?t find work in his field. Since he didn?t have an American education with a degree he could not practice his profession here. He got a menial job and my mother was a housewife. My English was very good already but still I went to night school and studied English to get rid of my German accent. I also took math and some technical courses. 1952 ? I was drafted and sent to fight in the Korean War. I was assigned to an artillery observation battalion as a radar operator. I was in a counter-mortar / artillery radar section whose purpose it was to locate the enemies? gun installations so that our artillery could and destroy them. I was always near the front lines. I served in Korea as did one of my best friend Henry Littman who had also been in Shanghai. Henry was a combat medic and was killed shortly after he got there. My service ended in 1953. That was the same year I became an American citizen. I was allowed to become a citizen a few months earlier than others because I had served in Korea. I got married in 1957. My wife, Noreen and I had two children. Noreen was from a Jewish family and her orthodox grandmother did not like her marrying someone who wasn?t Jewish. I had been with Jews most of my life, but I converted to Judaism anyway. In 1964 my in-laws moved to California. Then my parents decided to join us and we all moved to Los Angeles, California. In 1969 we moved to Las Vegas where I had a number of businesses. In 1974 I started working at Caesars Palace as a ?21? dealer. It was a great job. I dealt cards and worked with huge amounts of money and many very famous and wealthy people. My wife Noreen passed away in 2002 and I retired in 2005, after 31 years. Even though we are not married my incredible girlfriend Mary Lou Birbine and I just celebrated our eleventh anniversary. 11 After all we went through I credit my survival mainly to my mother. It was she who refused to divorce my father when it seemed the easy way out. It was she who, with unimaginable courage, pulled us through when so many did not.