Biography
Lucie Rosenberg (born Lucija Sternberg) is the daughter of Manfred (Fredo) Sternberg and Lilly Prister. She was born on December 5, 1921, in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). Her father owned many factories in Croatia and Slovenia. Lucie's mother was the daughter of a prominent Jewish architect. Lucie had one younger brother, Mario, who was born on January 14, 1925. Lucie and Mario attended a Jewish elementary school and later transferred to a public gymnasium. In 1937, at the age of 16, Lucie left her high school in Zagreb and was accepted at Oxford University in England. Her brother, Mario, was sent to St. Edward's boarding school in England. In June 1939 Lucie and Mario traveled home for their summer vacation. Lucie's boyfriend and later fiancé, Joseph Heaton, and some of his friends joined them in Zagreb. In September 1939, as Germany invaded Poland, all of the English boys left Yugoslavia immediately and enlisted in the British Army. Joseph Heaton was sent to India and later to Burma where he was killed in action. Fredo Sternberg decided to leave Yugoslavia as soon as possible. He transferred some of his money to Switzerland and to the United States. He sold pro-forma his factory in Liubljana, Slovenia, and accepted four U.S. immigration visas. On March 25, 1941, Yugoslavia joined the Axis alliance but did not implement it. On March 29, 1941, Fredo Sternberg, his brother, Feliks Sternberg and their respective families left Yugoslavia - one week before the German invasion. The family chauffer drove to Belgrade, Serbia where they boarded a train to Budapest, Hungary. From there they took another train to the Swiss border where they spent the night in a local inn where German soldiers were preparing for the invasion of Yugoslavia. Fredo Sternberg was interrogated by one of the officers, but since most of his permits were written in Cyrillic, they gave up and let him go. In the morning the family was able to board a train to Geneva where they stayed for three weeks. The Sternberg family then traveled on a sealed train via France to Spain and later by bus to Lisbon, Portugal. After a month they secured a passage on the SS "Siborney", arrived in Newark, N.J. and quickly settled in New York City. Mario, who was 16 years old at that time, was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was killed in action on July 9, 1944, in Normandy, France. In 1942 Lucie started to work for the Office of War Information. She continued there until her marriage in 1946 to Morris Rosenberg, a journalist.
