Gertrude (Gerti) STERN

1925 - 2016  (91 years)

• Name	Gertrude (Gerti) STERN
  Birth	15 May 1925	Montabaur, Germany
  Gender	Female
  Death	18 Nov 2016	Auckland, New Zealand
  Person ID	I108	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	1 Mar 2024

  
  

  Father	Albert STERN,   b. 26 Mar 1890, Montabaur, Germany d. 1992, Auckland, New Zealand (Age 101 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Johanna VOEHL,   b. 12 Aug 1897   d. 1951, Auckland, New Zealand (Mental Inst.) (Age 53 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F79	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Konrad Markus BLUMENFELD,   b. 12 Nov 1921, Berlin, Germany d. Oct 2009, Auckland, New Zealand (Age 87 years)
  Children	1. Living   2. Living   3. Living
  Family ID	F81	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	1 Mar 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Became a university lecturer in German in Auckland, NZ. Source: Alfred Stern From http://worldupsidedown.co.nz: Gerti was born in Montabaur, Germany, a small town of about 5,000 inhabitants. One of two siblings, Gerti had a younger brother Henry. Gerti's father was an apprentice banker who then went on to run the family store. There were about 25 to 30 Jewish families in the local community. They tended to socialise amongst themselves more than with the wider gentile population of the town. Relations within the township were for most part cordial and peaceful until the Nazi era. "I had a very happy childhood up to 1933 (When the Nazis came to power in Germany)." One of Gerti's first memories of the Nazis taking power was of two 'brown shirts' (Nazi stormtroopers or 'party thugs') standing in the doorway of her family shop. The following day they placed a notice in the shop window saying, 'Don't buy from this Jewish shop' ('Kauft nicht bei Juden'). As was common in those times, most Jewish parents in Germany tried to shield their children from the unpleasantness of the political situation. In Gerti's case, her parents did instruct her to tell anyone who asked which party her parents voted for to say 'Zentrum', a centrist and it was thought, non-offensive political party. In 1935 religious tuition for Jewish children at schools was banned. Almost immediately the whole atmosphere in the school changed and former school friends ended their friendship with their Jewish fellow pupils. Non-Jewish children turned away and ignored Gerti and the other Jewish children. "German children go on an 'Ausflug', once a year, an excursion [school trip] into the countryside and there, the Germans love to sing songs, you see. And then they could start singing the songs where they changed the words to make them anti-Jewish. So that was quite horrible really, you noticed it. It was very noticeable and people became quite nasty and it was very hurtful. It was like 'being sent to Coventry' (excluded), I mean they just didn't talk to you any more. One just took it." "My father was a returned soldier (of the First World War) and he belonged to the returned soldiers organisation (German equivalent of the Returned Service's Association (RSA) in NZ) and various other organisations. He used to do a lot of indoor bowling and that sort of thing, which they all did; but then he was thrown out of those, you see. You can't even call it persecution, it was just a sort of separate, separateness." With the writing on the wall, the family sold the shop and started to make plans for getting out of Germany. In 1938 they sold the house and while they were getting ready to leave, Gerti went to stay with cousins in London. The family sailed together for New Zealand, arriving on 24 August 1939. After a short stay in Wellington the family moved to Opotiki where Gerti's father setup a general store. Gerti lived most of her adult and married life in Auckland.