Heinrich Stern collection

Heinrich Stern (1882-1949) was born and lived in Nordhausen, Germany. He would eventually marry Charlotte Herzog, and they had one child, Eva. Heinrich became a notary and lawyer, and practiced in Nordhausen. In 1935, after Hitler’s rise to power, Heinrich was not allowed to practice law, and being forced to close his business, he later turned to work in a factory as a bookkeeper. During the Kristallnacht, Heinrich along with 50 other Jews from Nordhausen were arrested and taken to Buchenwald. Soon after, Eva was sent to England on a domestic permit. Charlotte was able to obtain visas to Peru from a travel bureau, and Heinrich was released from the concentration camp. Those visas, however, turned out to be fakes, but the travel bureau that those visas were purchased from was able to obtain visas for Bolivia. They left in 1939, and resided in Bolivia until 1944, when the couple was able to immigrate to the United States.