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Guy Stern

»We were committed to this war for personal reasons as well as ideological ones. Freedom was at stake not just in Europe but worldwide, and we worked harder, both in Camp Ritchie and in the field than anyone could have driven us. It was self-propelled energy«

Biography

Guenther Stern, born 1922 in Hildesheim, Germany is the only member of his family of five who is able to emigrate to the USA in 1937. In the following years he continuously attempts to provide affidavits for the rest of his family – without success.

After High School Guenther, now called Guy, enrolls at a university but is inducted in the U.S. Army in 1942. After his basic training he is transferred to Camp Ritchie and becomes a POW interrogator. Two days after D-Day Guy Stern arrives in Normandy. Together with Fred Howard, also a Ritchie Boy, he interrogates German prisoners in France and Germany and receives the Bronze Star for his “method of mass interrogation”.

After Germany’s capitulation Guy searches for his family and has to learn that his parents, his brother and sister all perished in the Warsaw-Ghetto. He returns to the USA in late 1945 to continue his studies and becomes an instructor for German Language and Literature at Columbia University. Today he is Distinguished Professor for German at Wayne State University in Detroit. His universities and the Federal Republic of Germany bestowed several high-ranking awards on him.

     
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