Anna Sternlicht

Born: Anna Geller
Strumień, Poland
November 5, 1898

Died: July 28, 1970

Anna Sternlicht was born in the small village of Strumień, Poland at a time when the region belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From an early age she spoke both German and Polish and was familiar with prayerbook Hebrew as well as the Yiddish spoken by her parents. At home her family kept kosher and followed traditional Orthodox Jewish customs. When Sternlicht was very young the family moved to the nearby village of Chybie where her parents established a country store connected to their home.

Sternlicht married her husband Samuel on August 20, 1919. The couple moved to Jaworze to establish their own store and had two children born in the town, Herta (b. 1920) and Arnold (b. 1921). After the unexpected deaths of their infant son and Anna’s father, the family returned to Chybie to live with Anna’s widowed mother Zofia Geller. There they had two more daughters, Edyta (b. 1924) and Eryka (b. 1928).

In 1930 the three-generation household moved to Bielsko where they lived in a spacious third-floor apartment located in the center of the city. From the balcony they could see the town’s magnificent synagogue only two blocks away. However, over the next few years the family witnessed the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and growing antisemitism across Europe. In 1937 a violent anti-Jewish pogrom broke out in Bielsko. The family’s lives would be shattered with the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939.

Fleeing the German army, the family abandoned their home in the middle of the night and made their way to the city of Wilno (Vilnius). Although once part of Poland, in September 1939 Wilno had been occupied by the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter the city was ceded to Lithuania. In Vilnius the Sternlichts’ lives briefly resumed some normalcy. Anna’s husband opened a store and her younger children entered school. Their eldest daughter married and moved to Kaunas, Lithuania where she started a family of her own.

The Sternlichts’ lives were again tragically interrupted after the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in June 1940. One year later, Anna and her two younger daughters were separated from Samuel and sent to labor camps in Siberia. They struggled to survive, enduring hard labor, sickness and starvation. The Sternlichts’ eldest daughter, still in Lithuania, was shot along with her husband and infant daughter when Nazis discovered them hiding in a bunker.

After the war the surviving members of the family returned to Poland, now a Soviet satellite. Seeing no future there, the Sternlichts helped their two youngest daughters leave for the American occupation zone in Germany. From there their daughters immigrated to the United States. In 1949 Anna and Samuel left for Israel and eventually joined them in the U.S.

Anna suffered a fatal stroke on July 28, 1970. Her entire family accompanied Anna to her final resting place in Israel.

Parents:
Szymon Geller, d. 1924
Zofia Geller, d. Wilno (Vilnius) ghetto, 1943

Siblings:
Zygmunt, d. Wilno (Vilnius) ghetto, 1943
Bruno, survived
Fryda, d. in Holocaust

Children:
Herta Tabacznik, d. in Holocaust
Edyta (Edith) Mincberg, survived
Eryka (Erika) Schwer, survived

Anna Sternlicht lived with her family in the building where they operated a country store in Chybie, Poland. Photo from the collection of Michał Kajstura, whose ancestors attended the church seen in the photo.
Anna Sternlicht and her husband Samuel. Photos courtesy of Edith Mincberg
Anna and Samuel Sternlicht had three daughters: Herta, Erika and Edith. This photo was taken in the early 1930s. Photo courtesy of Edith Mincberg
In 1930, the three-generation Sternlicht family moved to the top floor of this building in Bielsko. This photograph was taken in 1983 when Survivor Edith Mincberg (née Sternlicht) returned to visit Poland after the war. Photo courtesy of Edith Mincberg
Anna Sternlicht's eldest daughter Herta (left) posed with her family, ca. 1941. Also pictured are Herta's husband Misha, their child Shulamit, and Herta's maternal grandmother Zofia Geller. All four were murdered in the Holocaust. Photo courtesy of Edith Mincberg
The gravestone of Anna's father, Szymon Geller, was restored after the Nazi occupation using stone from an old monument. The names of family members who died in the Holocaust were also added. This photo shows the site in 1970. Photo courtesy of Edith Mincberg
After years of neglect, in 2016 the gravestone of Szymon Geller was saved and moved to the city of Bielsko. Photo courtesy of Edith Mincberg