Daniel Stern was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, on July 4, 1945, to Jewish parents who had fled Nazism in Germany and Hungary. After being brutally removed from the University of Heidelberg by Brown Shirts, his mother Freida fled Germany in 1937. Freida’s parents–Daniel’s grandparents–were murdered in Auschwitz in 1941. Her four sisters were murdered at Treblinka in 1942. His father Edward, sensing that the Nazis would take Hungary next, also fled, with both Freida and Edward taking jobs in the British Embassy in neutral Portugal. As the war spread across Europe and stretched towards Britain, Freida and Edward, now married, fled to Mozambique, then South Africa, then Palestine, and two more countries before immigrating to the United States.
Dan’s presentation, complete with a compelling 17-minute film, speaks to antisemitism, Nazism, colonialism, the collapse of the British Mandate, and the unbreakable resilience and righteousness necessary to denounce and outrun oppression. Dan can also join your classroom with Tom Benic, who brings additional World War II context to the conversation.
To schedule Dan for your classroom, contact Kate at [email protected] or 412-212-3267.