Holocaust Survivor-Klaus Stern
By Emily McCann

The Holocaust nightmare of Klaus and Paula Stern started as a love story. As part of the Holocaust Survivor Series, Klaus Stern told how war could not keep him away from his beloved Paula.

For Paula it was the way Stern danced at a house party in her hometown, just a year into the war. She noticed the young Stern right away. When Stern turned 21, he asked Paula’s mother if they could marry. However the newlyweds didn’t get to plan a honeymoon, they planned for each other’s survival. On April 19, 1942, 21 year-old Stern was taken to the train to Auschwitz; he wouldn’t see Paula for another 28 months.

“We lived for each other,” said Stern. The two made a pact that if they were separated at Auschwitz they would meet again in Paula’s hometown.

Before Stern met and separated from the love of his life, he was just another young boy growing up in Berlin. His father was a soldier, the family saw the war begin but they felt safe in the presence of their “papa.” But Stern knew times were changing in his home of Berlin. At the tender age of twelve, Stern’s best friend, a non-Jew, said he couldn’t be Stern’s friend anymore. The boy feared for his father’s business and he planned to join the Hitler Youth.

Around that same time, Nazi soldiers burned down Stern’s family synagogue. “Hitler went too far,” said Stern. “When they start burning houses of worship that is too much.”

The world began to cave in on Stern as his hometown slowly came under Nazi regime. He was taken out of the school system. He watched as his young cousins and children of his hometown boarded the “Kindertransport”, a train to England where they sent Jewish children. And in March of 1938, fellow members and business owners of his church had to sell their businesses for their survival.

However all of this didn’t matter or compare to what was ahead of them. In 1942, at the age of 21, Stern bought a farm and became a farmer. His parents had the chance to go to America but Stern stayed behind because he had met his wife.

Soon Stern would realize he had made a wrong decision. While coming off the train to Auschwitz, Stern paused and looked at the camp, a Nazi soldier clubbed him in the arm and said, “Get going, this is not a resort.” He was separated instantly from his new wife and six month old son. Stern was left to face the horror of Auschwitz alone and confused.

While staying in his bunk Stern smelled a wretched smell, a smell he said he can still recall to this day. For days Stern worried for his wife and his child but he could not stop wondering what the smell was. He asked a guard, the guard showed him the decomposing bodies resting on the wall next to his bunk.

While at the death march of Auschwitz, Stern had had enough; he fell to the ground in the middle of marching. Luckily two fellow prisoners saw Stern fall and grabbed him before he hit the ground. Had the guards seen him he would have been instantly killed.

The US Army came three days later, however they were two late to save over six million, Stern will never forget the day his nightmare ended. He watched as one GI broke down into tears because he couldn’t believe what he saw; Stern told the young man that it was all real.

By the war’s end, athletic, 160-pound Stern had gone down to a mere 96 pounds. As he was walking out of the camp ready to greet Paula once again a German woman shouted, “look still some Jews left, Hitler didn’t do a good job.” But Stern didn’t care about what she said; he only had one woman on his mind, Paula.

Stern grabbed Paula as he stepped of the train to her hometown; a trip that would have only taken five hours took him a month. Nazis destroyed the direct train tracks to her hometown. The two planned the trip to meet up with Klaus’s parents in America.

While boarding the train for New York, just a few weeks after the two reunited a German soldier asked the young couple why they were going to America. Klaus looked in the eyes of the soldier and lied; he said he was picking up his parents because they wanted to come back to their dear old Germany. Klaus, Paula, and their son arrived in America in 1945 and they never looked back. For the next 57 years the Sterns have lived in Seattle with their son, daughter and four grandchildren.

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