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Stern, Guy (37413105): Difference between revisions

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Enrich from Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history
 
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|birth_year=1922
|birth_year=1922
|nativity=Germany
|nativity=Germany
|religion=J
|religion=Jewish
|enlistment_place=JEFFERSON BARRACKS MISSOURI
|enlistment_place=Jefferson Barracks Missouri
|state=MISSOURI
|state=Missouri
|ipw_ge=41
|ipw_ge=41
|education=Saint Louis University
|education=Ph.D. in German literature
|occupation=Waiters and waitresses except private family
|occupation=Professor of German literature; author
|marital=Single with dependents
|marital=Single with dependents
|certificate=2626
|certificate=2626
|photo=Stern, Guy (37413105).jpg
|photo=Stern, Guy (37413105) press TANGRAM.jpg
|confidence=high
|confidence=high
|class_display=8
|class_display=8
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|birth_date=14 January 1922
|birth_date=14 January 1922
|death_date=7 December 2023
|death_date=7 December 2023
|birth_place=Hildesheim, Hanover, Prussia, Germany
|birth_place=Hildesheim, Germany
|death_place=Detroit, Michigan, US
|death_place=Detroit, Michigan
|rank_final=Capt
|story=The Stories/Guy Stern
|awards=Bronze Star; French Legion of Honor
|awards_grid=Bronze Star;;French Legion of Honor
|awards_ribbons=Ribbon_Bronze_Star_Medal_ribbon.png;;Ribbon_Legion_Honneur_Chevalier.png
|awards_ribbon_rows=Ribbon_Bronze_Star_Medal_ribbon.png;;Ribbon_Legion_Honneur_Chevalier.png
|awards_extra=
}}
}}


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Günther "Guy" Stern (January 14, 1922 – December 7, 2023) was a German-American decorated member of the secret Ritchie Boys World War II military intelligence interrogation team. As the only person from his Jewish family to flee Nazi Germany, he came to the United States and later served in the US Army conducting frontline interrogations.
'''Guy Stern''' (1922–2023), born Günther Stern in Hildesheim, was a German-born American interrogator, psychological-warfare soldier, and scholar. A Camp Ritchie graduate and master sergeant, He served from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge and received the Bronze Star.
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== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Guy Stern was born Günther Stern in Hildesheim, Germany, on 14 January 1922. He grew up in a Jewish family under increasingly violent Nazi persecution. In 1937, at age fifteen, He was sent alone to the United States in the hope that He could establish himself and help his family escape.


Stern tried from America to create a path out for his parents and siblings, but the war and immigration barriers closed that possibility. His family was deported into the Warsaw ghetto and murdered in the Holocaust. Their loss remained central to his understanding of his wartime service and his later work as an educator and witness.


Günther Stern was born on January 14, 1922, the son of Julius Stern and Hedwig Stern (née Silberberg). Wiki profile records list Guy Stern (ASN 37413105), also known as Günther Stern, as born in 1922 in Germany, of Jewish faith, with Camp Ritchie Class 8 (section 5C, private), IPW Team 41, specialty POW interrogation, and Military Intelligence Service. Stern had a love for literature and music at a young age and enjoyed going to the theatre and opera with his parents on the weekends.
After entering the U.S. Army, Stern was selected for Camp Ritchie because of his command of German and knowledge of German society. He trained as a prisoner-of-war interrogator and was promoted through the enlisted ranks to master sergeant. He reached Normandy roughly two or three days after D-Day and began questioning German prisoners close behind the advancing front, working in the field with fellow Ritchie Boy [[Howard, Fred (32799358)|Fred Howard]].


Three days after D-Day (D+3), Stern landed at Normandy with a special military intelligence unit composed largely of German-, Austrian-, and Czech-born Jewish soldiers and interrogated prisoners of war on the front lines.
Stern distinguished himself by organizing efficient mass interrogations that separated prisoners, identified useful sources, and extracted time-sensitive military information. That work brought him the Bronze Star. During the Battle of the Bulge He also took part in psychological-warfare operations intended to weaken German morale and encourage surrender.


Stern moved back to New York City and returned to his studies, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Romance languages in 1948 from Hofstra University, and then a Master of Arts in 1950 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1954 from Columbia University. In 1954 he taught at the Seminarienhaus in Zürich which was then owned by Ohio's Heidelberg University. He was one of the founders of the Lessing Society (University of Cincinnati, 1966), acting as its president from 1975 until 1977.
After the war, Stern earned a doctorate in German literature and built a distinguished academic career. He became a leading scholar of exile literature and served at Wayne State University, where He was a professor and later Distinguished Professor Emeritus. His scholarship and public speaking connected German studies with the experience of refugees and the history of the Holocaust.
 
He was later head of the German and Slavic studies department at the University of Maryland, then until his retirement served as a distinguished professor of German literature and cultural history at Wayne State University and was vice president of academic affairs and provost from 1978 to 1980. In 1988, he received an honorary doctorate from Hofstra University. After World War II, he graduated from Columbia University and became a scholar, primarily of German and comparative literature.
 
After teaching at Columbia, he received an assistant professorship at Denison University in Ohio. He was later professor and head of the department for German language and literature at the University of Cincinnati in the 1960s. He also received an honorary doctorate from the [https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/ University of Hildesheim].
 
He enlisted at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; civilian records list two years of college and an occupation as a waiter.
 
At Camp Ritchie he trained in interrogation methods that Bruce Henderson later summarized from Stern's account in ''Sons and Soldiers'': superior knowledge of enemy units, controlled incentives such as food or cigarettes, finding common interests with a prisoner, and exploiting a prisoner's fears—always under the Judge Advocate General admonition never to touch a prisoner.
 
Günther "Guy" Stern (January 14, 1922 – December 7, 2023) was a German-American decorated member of the secret Ritchie Boys World War II military intelligence interrogation team. Once the war was over, Stern visited Hildesheim again where he learned that his family's home had been taken by the Nazi government in 1938 and they had been moved to a "Jew House". Stern received several awards throughout his life, among them the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1987) and the Goethe Medal (1989).
 
His memoir ''Invisible Ink''—anticipated on the Facebook page through 2020 and released that August—describes his training, Normandy landing, and later life. Stern was featured in the 2022 Ken Burns PBS documentary The U.S. As the only person from his Jewish family to flee Nazi Germany, he came to the United States and later served in the US Army conducting frontline interrogations.
 
He worked at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He and his family, including a younger brother, Werner, and a younger sister, Eleonore, resided in Hildesheim, Germany. His father owned his own business, working as a salesman of clothing materials.
 
After talking to locals still in the area he learned they had ended up at the Warsaw Ghetto and had perished there. He was a visiting scholar at the German universities of Freiburg im Breisgau and Frankfurt am Main. Stern was the director of the Harry and Wanda Zekelman International Institute of the Righteous at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills (near Detroit).
 
As author and editor, he published several books and compilations on German literary history. He was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor for freeing France during the war and was recognized as an honorary citizen of Hildesheim. A plaque has been placed in front of the area that was once his home as a tribute to his family.
 
and the Holocaust and interviewed by 60 Minutes about his Richie Boys training and work experiences. Stern married a teacher named Judith S. He remarried, to German author Susanna Piontek.
 
He also had an adopted son who proceeded him in death. He was interred at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Michigan. He fled Nazi Germany for the United States and served in U.S.
 
Army military intelligence as one of the German-Jewish Ritchie Boys. With Fred Howard, and with help from Capt. Edgar Kann, Stern also took part in the well-known "Commissar Krukov" ruse used to pressure German prisoners of war.
 
Facebook posts on the Ritchie Boys of WWII page place him among the German-Jewish trainees highlighted by Henderson and identify him with IPW Team 41 teammates. He was also a long-time board member of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York.
 
In 1969, Stern was elected president of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). and died on December 7, 2023, aged 101, in Detroit. The Ritchie Boys of WWII page reported his death in December 2023; contemporary coverage summarized his path from flight from the Nazis to wartime intelligence service and noted that he died at 101.
 
Days after his passing, he was unanimously elected to be [https://www.fisherhousemichigan.org/emeritus Director Emeritus of Fisher House Michigan]. After the war he remained a public interpreter of that experience: he was featured in the documentary film ''The Ritchie Boys'', spoke at events such as "Sunset on the Mountain" at the former Fort Ritchie Officers' Club, and served as director of the Harry and Wanda Zekelman International Institute of the Righteous at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.


Stern published his memoir, ''Invisible Ink'', in 2020. His many honors included the French Legion of Honour as well as American, German, and academic distinctions recognizing his military service and scholarship. He died on 7 December 2023.


== Research notes ==
== Research notes ==
* OTC;SO 217 (9/7/43)
* OTC
* SO 217 (9/7/43)
* Ritchie Boy
* Ritchie Boy
* 1/14/1922-A
* German literature scholar
* German literature scholar; Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
* Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
* Portrait and summary from Notable Ritchie Boys slides ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EWiegWT3PMxAFXS7MZLxFFLMZg0265GK5_Axp_XnzWM source]).


== Gallery ==
== Gallery ==
<div class="soldier-gallery">
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<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
698109080211016.jpg
Guy Stern 1.png|Guy Stern
1566202553401660.png
Guy Stern 2.png|Guy Stern
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Guy Stern 3.png|Guy Stern
1584059074949341.png
Stern, Guy (37413105).jpg|Earlier profile photograph (retained after press-photo update)
2294136980608210.jpg
Documentary Ritchie Boys VE Day Stern Sears Howard press.jpg|Ritchie Boys team on V-E Day, 8 May 1945 — Guy Stern, Walter Sears, Fred Howard (© TANGRAM; Bauer film press photo)
2941905925831309.jpg
3206113766077189.png
3227414150613817.png
3386874538001110.png
3512024678819428.jpg
3512106335477929.jpg
3512130662142163.jpg|and say they can have it if they cooperate.' 3) 'Play on their like and inclinations.' 4) 'Find out his anxieties and fears and make him think they will soon become a reality.' In the photo below, Ritchie Boy Martin Selling is Martin Selling questions German prisoners near the front in France, 1944.
626628162834781.jpg
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== Timeline ==
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed soldier-timeline">
<div class="soldier-timeline-body">
* 14 January 1922 — Born Günther Stern in Hildesheim, Germany.
* 1 May 1943 — Became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
* 16 July 1943 — Graduated Camp Ritchie with Class 8 (IPW-Ge).
* 10 September 1943 — Assigned to an interrogation team for field training maneuvers with HQ Third Army at Leesville, Louisiana (with 1st Lt. Edward B. Klich and 2nd Lt. George).
* 15 December 1943 — Promoted to staff sergeant; assignment III-653.
* June 1948 — Married Margith __.
* 19 July 1979 — Married Judith Edelstein Owens.
* May 2006 — Married Susanna Piontek.
* 7 December 2023 — Died in Detroit, Michigan.
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== Sources ==
== Sources ==
* [https://holocaustcenter.org/research/oral-history-department/oral-histories-index/ Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index]
* [https://5152.sydneyplus.com/argus/final/Portal/Default.aspx?component=AAFG&record=42e71bd5-27f8-4aaf-b402-d0e47d079916 Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history, OHV 402]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Stern Wikipedia: Guy Stern]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Stern Wikipedia: Guy Stern]
* Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
* Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
* Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
* NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
* NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
* 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
* 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
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* Facebook-linked source: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSGQ4y0Wi0&t=253s YouTube video]
* Facebook-linked source: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSGQ4y0Wi0&t=253s YouTube video]
* [[The Stories/Guy Stern|The Stories essay]]
* [[The Stories/Guy Stern|The Stories essay]]
* Dan Gross, ''Timeline of Guy Stern for Camp Ritchie'' (private research document; 2 source documents reviewed)
* Dan Gross, ''Timeline of Stern, Guy for Camp Ritchie'' (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 2 source files: GUY STERN (2020).doc, GUY STERN.doc)
* [https://ritchieboys.com/EN/boys_stern.html The Ritchie Boys: Guy Stern]
* [https://ritchieboys.com/EN/press_photos.html The Ritchie Boys film site — press photos] (© TANGRAM (Harald Stuckmann); high-res https://ritchieboys.com/DL/photos-highq/boys/stern.jpg)
* [https://ritchieboys.com/EN/press_photos.html The Ritchie Boys film site — press photos] (© TANGRAM; V-E Day team photo)
Retrieved from "https://ritchieboys.org/wiki/Stern,_Guy_(37413105)"