Overview
- Interview Summary
- Gerd (aka Gary) Sternberg, born on August 25, 1931 in Cuxhaven, Germany, discusses his parents Augusta (a devout Christian of Polish ancestry who had fled Russian persecution) and Herman (a German-born Jew salesman and inventor); his older sister Ruth; conditions for Jews in Germany in the late 1930s; the arrest and deportation of his father to a concentration camp; the release of his father; his father's and later his whole family's migration to Shanghai, China; going by train through Russia to China; being transferred to a Japanese ship and crossing the Yellow Sea; arriving in Shanghai district called Hongkew; living in the Jewish ghetto in Hongkew from May 1939 to July 1948; immigrating to the United States; living in Cleveland, OH and Los Angeles, CA; getting married in 1957; living in Las Vegas, NV, where he worked for Sears selling washing machines, and had a repair business and an importing business with his wife; working at Caesars Palace; his Jewish identity; converting to Judaism; and being an active member of the Jewish community.
- Interviewee
- Gary Sternberg
- Interviewer
- Ms. Barbara Tabach
- Date
-
interview:
2015 February 12
interview: 2015 February 15
interview: 2015 April 07
interview: 2015 October
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
6 digital files : WAV.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Children of interfaith marriage. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Jewish ghettos--China--Shanghai. Jewish refugees--China--Shanghai. Jews--China--Shanghai. Jews--Identity. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Germany. Jews--Persecutions--Germany. Men--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Children. World War, 1939-1945--China--Shanghai. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations. World War, 1939-1945--Refugees.
- Geographic Name
- Cleveland (Ohio) Cuxhaven (Germany) Hongkou Qu (Shanghai, China) Los Angeles (Calif.) Shanghai (China) United States--Emigration and immigration.
- Personal Name
- Sternberg, Gary.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The Oral History Research Center at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University Libraries donated the interview to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in October 2019.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 10:05:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn712029
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