Rev. Irvin Stern

IN MEMORY

Rev. Irvin (Isaac) Stern, Yitzchak Aryeh ben Yisrael Dov z’l, of Baltimore, passed away on March 14, 2021 in Highland Park, NJ. Rev. Irvin (Isaac) Stern

By: BJLife/Rabbi Elchonon Oberstein

BaltimoreJewishLife.com/Jeff Cohn

“I Arrived In Auschwitz 70 Years Ago” A Conversation With Reb Yitzchok Aryeh Stern

An interview in 2014 with Rabbi Elchonon Oberstein

Since its founding in 1933, Ner Israel has opened its doors to students from all over the world. In 1946, a group of Holocaust survivors arrived on student visas from the yeshiva to rebuild their lives. One of them is retired Baltimore shochet, Reb Yitzchok Stern, and we share with you his recollections of that tumultuous period.

“In 1939, my hometown in Romania was transferred to Hungary. Until 1944, I was able to study in a yeshiva under Rabbi Mendel Hagar of the Vishnitz dynasty. In 1944, the Nazis came into Hungary and we were put into a ghetto. After about 5 weeks, we were made to walk over the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania to the train tracks on the other side of the mountain. We arrived at Birkenau on the 26th of Iyar, I was about 16. My father and I were chosen by Mengele to work and the rest of the family went to the other side. My father and I were in various camps until we were sent to Dora to dig tunnels for the Werner von Braun’s V2 rocket program. It is inconceivable that we weak and starving inmates dug a tunnel of 125 kilometers by hand, but I survived. I was a stubborn boy. I was in a number of camps. Towards the end of the war, we were evacuated to Bergen Belsen, from which I was liberated by the British on April 15,1945.

About 10 years ago, my grandson, Michael Diamond wanted to see these places and we went to Europe. I took him to Dora and some of the other camps. I did not have to take him to Auschwitz because he had already gone there on another visit with his grandmother, Mrs. Sonia Diamond. The Germans kept records of everything. I had known that my father was born in 1895 and died in Buchenwald but did not know his actual birth date. When we entered Buchenwald, each inmate had to fill out a form and my grandson found this form on a computer there. His grandfather was born on January 4 which is Michael’s birthday also and he is named for him.

After the war, Sweden was taking in sick survivors and, since I weighed 75 pounds, I qualified. We spent a year and a half in Sweden. A group of 350 of us asked the Swedes for a kosher kitchen and they agreed. When we explained that we needed two sets of dishes, they thought we were out of our minds, but accommodated us. Then Pesach came, and we told them that we needed another two sets of dishes and they gave it to us also.

There was a rabbi who helped the survivors, Rabbi Wolf Jacobson, and he encouraged us to resume learning again. Rabbi Jacobson had a son in Ner Israel, and he asked us if we would like to also attend the yeshiva in Baltimore. He wrote to Rabbi Herman Neuberger who responded by sending us 30 affidavits. Thus began the new chapter in our lives.

We arrived in New York on December 16,1946 and proceeded to Baltimore. We had never seen a yeshiva in Europe like Ner Israel. First of all, the boys were different, they were Americans and not all of them even spoke Yiddish well. Secondly the yeshiva was “golden’ to us; who ever heard of a yeshiva that provides breakfast, lunch and dinner and a dormitory, we were overwhelmed. Not only did the yeshiva take care of all of our needs, but they gave us $5 a week pocket money. The whole yeshiva in those days numbered maybe 130 boys and we were welcomed and made to feel a part of the family. As kind as the yeshiva was to us, I would be remiss if I did not mention the warmth and care that was showered on us by Rabbi and Rebbetzin Herzberg. All of the survivors found a home with them. They understood us and helped us overcome what we had experienced. While in the yeshiva, I studied shechita. I was married in 1948 and have lived in Baltimore ever since. Boruch Hashem, we have three daughters, nine grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

Those of us who came to the yeshiva on that ship from Europe will always feel a strong bond to Ner Israel, which opened its arms to us and helped us build new lives of Torah and Yiras Shamayim.