Philip Stern grew up in Berlin. His parents Sofia and Isaak Stern ran a leather goods store on Veteranenstraße. His sister Hanna was born in 1935. The Jewish family had been persecuted since the Nazis took power in 1933. After the 1938 November pogrom, Philip Stern was sent to Ahlem near Hannover. He attended the Israelite Gardening School there, which prepared students to emigrate to Palestine. In July 1941 his father was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was murdered in 1942.
The gardening school was closed at the start of 1942, and Philip Stern returned to Berlin. Shortly later, he was deported to the Riga ghetto with his mother Sofia and sister Hanna. They suffered from hunger, cold, and disease there and had to perform forced labor. They were also at threat of so-called “actions,” in which ghetto inhabitants were murdered at random. Philip Stern is presumed to have died during the dissolution of the ghetto in November 1943.
Philip Stern, Berlin, around 1933. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
The Stern family, late-1930s. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Hanna and Philip Stern, 1930s. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
