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Guy Stern
| Guy Stern | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Günther Stern |
| Born | 14 January 1922 Hildesheim, Hanover, Prussia, Germany |
| Died | 7 December 2023 Detroit, Michigan, US |
| Nativity | Germany |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 37413105 |
| Rank | Private |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 8 (17 May – 16 July 1943) |
| Section | 5C |
| Enlisted | Jefferson Barracks, Missouri |
| Specialty | POW interrogation |
| Unit / division | Military Intelligence Service |
| Team | IPW 41 |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
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.
Biography
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.
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 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.
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 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 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.
Research notes
- OTC;SO 217 (9/7/43)
- Ritchie Boy
- 1/14/1922-A
- German literature scholar; Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
- Portrait and summary from Notable Ritchie Boys slides (source).
Gallery
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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. -
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Nara ASN | 37413105 |
| Nara Name | STERN GUY |
| Nara State | 75 |
| Nara County | 191 |
| Nara POE | 7545 |
| Nara DOE | 210143 |
| Nara Grade Alpha | PVT |
| Nara Grade Code | 8 |
| Nara Branch Alpha | BI |
| Nara Branch Code | 0 |
| Branch | Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA |
| Nara Term or Enlistment | 5 |
| Term of enlistment | Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law |
| Defer. Date | 0 |
| Nara Source | 0 |
| Nara Nativity | N1 |
| Nara Year of Birth | 22 |
| Nara Race | 1 |
| Nara Race Description | White citizen |
| Nara Education | 6 |
| Nara Civilian Occupation | 227 |
| Nara Marital Status | 1 |
| Nara Height (inches) | 66 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 138 |
| Class_ASN | 37413105 |
| Class_Name | STERN, Guy |
| match_method | asn_exact_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Sources
- Wikipedia: Guy Stern
- Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2014-01-18 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2017-08-13 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2017-09-01 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2019-03-11 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-02-09 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-06-01 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-06-09 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-08-06 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-09-16 (3 posts)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2023-06-01 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2023-12-08 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2023-12-14 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2024-03-11 (1 post)
- Facebook-linked source: bestdefensefoundation.org
- Facebook-linked source: aussiedlerbote.de
- Facebook-linked source: timesofisrael.com
- Facebook-linked source: YouTube video
- The Stories essay