Born on April 19, 1868 in Stuttgart
The fourth child of Jeanette and Hermann Stern, he learned the trade of a merchant and, after his father’s retirement, ran the family’s cloth business in Stuttgart together with his brother Max. You can find out more about his fate in the text on Julius’ sister Anna Einstein, née Stern.
Unlike most of the internees from the castle, Julius Stern was in close contact with a Weißenstein family, namely the Wamsler family, which was ‘forbidden’ and meant a risk for both sides. Mrs. Emma Hanner, née Wamsler, recounted her memories in 2017:
“Julius Stern, an intelligent man, didn’t just come to the house to do the shopping. My father always took him into the living room and they discussed Hitler and the situation in Germany and at the front. The use of information sources such as newspapers and radio was forbidden to the Jewish inhabitants of the castle. Mr. Stern suspected nothing good, nor did he have any illusions about the fate of the Jews. From time to time, he gave my father gifts, or rather left them, such as a silver cigarette case,
an elegant walking stick with a silver lion on the handle, a leather wallet for ID cards and banknotes and a DIN A5 leather case with a press stud as a clasp, decorated with the initials “J.S.” (a kind of writing set with slide-in compartments for sheets of paper, cards and stamps).
These things should always remind my father of him. Apart from the walking stick, everything is still in the family possession.”
(12.09.2023 kmr/ww)
