Elias Stern, born in Sosnowiec in Poland in 1913, worked as an accountant in Katowice. At the beginning of the war in 1939, he was deported to the German forced labor camp in Lublin. From 1942 to 1944 he was a forced laborer in Bielawa before finally being liberated from Mauthausen concentration camp in 1945. He returned to Sosnowiec in search of family members but did not find any survivors. He then went to Berlin before traveling on to Munich in 1946 where he was given “Displaced Person” (DP) status.
From 1947 he was manager of the Hotel Bristol in Möhlstrasse and in 1950 he registered a “beer tavern and bar selling, gin, wine, brandy, and non-spirits” in Schillerstrasse. Elias Stern married and lived with his wife and daughter in Augustenstrasse in 1960. Today, his descendants still live in Bavaria.
With thanks to Elias Stern’s daughter for the family photos.
The exhibition “Munich Displaced. The Surviving Remnant” is a stocktaking on Munich’s post-war history. Much detailed information as well as photos and memorabilia are still missing. In the meantime, visitors, descendants of Displaced Persons from Munich and other interested parties have shared their memories with us.