Periodic • Thursday, September 7, 1950 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE Page 36 His Old Life Broken, Man Makes Flowers in Israel By HAROLD TROBE THERE WILL BE FLOWERS IN Israel blooming this winter. And Simon Stern will I make—not grow—them. For Simon Stern, artificial flower maker with an artificial hand, has gone to Israel. Behind the story of Simon Stern, a peace-loving man with a gentle trade, is a bloody and brutal history of pain and persecution. Today, thanks to the assistance of American Jewry through the Joint Distribution Committee, a hopeful, useful future awaits him in the growing Jewish State. Born 35 years ago in the little town of Boesing, Czechoslovokia, Stern was one of a large and scattered family—a family whose traces hardly exist today. When he finished school, young Simon went into his father's textile business, but soon left it to open his own artificial-flower shop in ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS . . . Bennett Bros. 401 W. JEFFERSON WO. 2-7446 Bratislava, the capital of Slo- vakia. The business blossomed successfully, and Stern looked forward to a comforable life. But the iron heel of Nazi armies crushed that hope. In 1940, Stern planned to es- cape German-occupied. Czecho- slovakia for Israel. But his dreams were upset one day when his father, severely beaten by Nazi troops, died, leaving young Simon to care for a family of eight children. A year later, his business was taken from him, and destitute, he looked for an alley of escape. From then on, Stern's life be- came a tenuous, uncertain strug- gle for existance. For months, the young Czech Jew calculated an escape across the border into Hungary, where conditions had not yet deteriorated to the ex- NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS CITY SCRAP IRON & METAL CO. 2715 W. WARREN TY. 7-3632 Rosh Hashonah Greetings Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Frenkel and Family GREETINGS American Army and Navy Stores MICHAEL GALSKY, Prop. 13215 Harper, LA. 8-9465 52 Cadillac Square, WO. 4-9449 • WISHING OUR FRIENDS AND PATRONS A HAPPY NEW YEAR tent they had in Czechoslovakia. In the attempt, however, he was caught and condemned to a concentration camp. But on the way, he eluded his captors, and wandering across Central Eu- SIMON STERN • • • rope, hiding, fleeing, working as a carpenter, decorator, or prin- ter, managed to reach the relative safety of Hungary. • • • BUT WHAT HAVEN Hungary offered was short-lived. In 1944, he was arrested in Budapest and sentenced to death. His sentence was "commuted," however, and he was sent for the second time, to a German concentration camp. For two days, Stern and his fellow prisoners walked, carry- ing all their belongings, almost 100 miles to Germany. There, Stern was sent to Buchenwald, then to Flossenburg, and finally to the extermination camp of Nordhausen. In January, 1945, Stern men- tally prepared himself for death. Weighing less than 90 pounds, he was barely able to drag him- self to work—and inability to work meant the gas-chambers. Aware of this, Nazi guards sadistically assigned Stern to the most difficult task, laying rail- road tracks. Unable even fb at- tempt such labor, Stern protested to the German overseer. The an- swer: two revolver shots, and Stern collapsed, his left arm shattered. Regaining consciousness in the camp hospital, Stern found that his hand had been amputated and that he was 'under arrest for sabotage.' But the doctors— themselves inmates of the camp —managed to hide the young Czech Jew until the British Army liberated them a month later. Two months later, SinnonaStern was home in Bratislava. His shop, ruined and pillaged, stood like the empty shell of a mem- ory. The few remains of his fam- ily were flung far • across the corners of Europe. But conscientiously, Stern be- gan to rebuild, and within four years, his artifical-flower shop was a going affair. Married and hopeful, Stern looked forward to the comfort and prosperity that might brighten some of the shadows of the past. In 1949, however, Czech businesses were nationalized, and Stern, forced to close his shop, became "econom- ically displaced." • • • AGAIN HE WAS destitute, but again he retained the optimism, hope and perseverance that had carried him through former years of horror. Stern decided to go to Israel. In Vienna, his first stop on the "road to deliverance," Stern ran into complications—the kind of trouble that almost every Jewish refugee has met in his search for freedom and security. Stern needed money. Unable to con- tinue his trip to Israel because of his disability, he required a better artifical hand and new tools for his artifical-flower pro- duction. And like almost every Jewish Rosh Hashonah Greetings and Best Wishes . • • BARILUM HOTEL Happy New Year . Wm. H. Belter Tires 1931 E. JEFFERSON Happy New Year A. BLACK HARDWARE COMPANY UN. 4.3436 19185 Livernois WE DELIVER Glidden Paints, Hardware, Sporting Goods, and Toys Everything for the Home GREETINGS IfyikeNr ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS WRIGLEY'S SUPER MARKETS refugee, Stern's first thought was the Joint Distribution Commit- tee—simply "American Joint" to thousands throughout Europe— which has aided more than 90 per cent of the more than 400,000 Jews who have emigrated so far to Israel since the establishment of the new state. Stern's request for both the prostethic device and the mach- inery to continue his vocation were carefully studied by JDC's Vienna staff. Their decision was not only to provide the Czechosl- ovakian-Jewish refugee with new tools, but with a special machine that would permit him to work with one hand. The new, spec- ially-constructed "clicking press" is designed to cut flower pat- terns into raw materials. The same machine is cutting out for Simon Stern the econom- ically and morally independent life that has been denied him for years. Now, like hundreds of thous- ands of Jews before him, Simon Stern is In Israel. There, after a decade of war and persecution, he hopes to build a new life— making flowers without fragr- ance, but sweet nevertheless. NCw 4 CHECKER BAR & GRILL ERA .#4,1I•111iCAtiv IntOCILIt0 Mr. Rubin 725 Bates WO. 4-8002 Greetings Cadillac Furniture Co. 5801 Grandy WA. 1-2700 rfloAh dtaihmtah 1255 Broadway WOodward 2-5900 Mr. and Mrs. Henry Keywell Mr. and Mrs. Kopel I. Kahn Mr. and Mrs. J. Phillip Levant Mr.'and Mrs. Jerome M. Keywell Joyce N. Keywell Mr. and Mrs. Isadore Kowal Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Kowal Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Kowal. WO. 1-7397 GREETINGS ... AUTOMATIC STOKER SERVICE CO. 623 EAST EVELYN Hazel Park JO. 4-6390 BANK OF COMMERCE 11300 Jos. Campau Offices: Hamtramck - Warren - Centerline RESOURCES OVER $37,000,000 Member of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. INEDANNI NDOININO.N•Wem.•••• ■•■ ■.■ ■