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Jewish Holocaust victims and their
heirs worldwide who lost Jewish
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property that was confiscated,
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Holocaust Era Asset Restitution
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judaica
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Photographs: Gift of Ruth Mermeistein, Yaffa Hach
Colledion donated by the Center for Holocaust
Studies, Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York, U.S.A.
Gift of Eric S. Morley, Museum of Jewish Heritage,
New York, U.S.A. Gift of Ronnie Hamburger Burrows,
Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York, U.S.A.
1712960
14
October 27 • 2011
Guy Stern and Susanna Piontek say they are meant to be together.
Beshert
A chance meeting inspires a love story
and a literary collaboration.
Ronelle Grier
Contributing Writer
T
he stories Susanna Piontek
writes are filled with surprises,
but the love story of the author
and her husband of five years, Guy Stern,
may be the most compelling of all. It has
the elements of a bestseller: a chance
meeting in a small German town, a pow-
erful and instantaneous connection, a
new life in an unfamiliar country. Not to
mention an age difference of 41 years.
Piontek, 48, will speak at the Jewish
Community Center Jewish Book Fair on
Wednesday, Nov. 9, about her book, Have
We Possibly Met Before? And Other Stories,
which was translated from German by
Stern, 89, and published earlier this year.
When the couple met in 2004, Stern
was a widower; his wife of 25 years had
died the year before. Piontek, who had
been married briefly several years ear-
lier, was living on her own in Saarland,
located in southwestern Germany.
Both had been invited to speak at
a program at the public library in the
small German town of Minden. The
night before Stern met his future bride,
he told a group of friends he was ready
to stop mourning his late wife and
begin a new relationship.
"The next day we met:' Piontek said.
"It was meant to be:'
Piontek was impressed when she
heard Stern's lecture, but had no imme-
diate romantic feelings.
"He had a marvelous voice; I just love
his voice she said, "and he had so much
energy and charisma — the whole
audience was taken with him."
Only later, when they were seated
near each other at a reception did their
mutual attraction begin to surface.
Before long, they were sharing Jewish
jokes, singing songs by German-Jewish
composer Kurt Well and discussing lit-
erature, opera and art.
"We talked for three hours:' she said.
"For both of us, it was a very special
moment. I remember very vividly the
way we looked at each other and smiled.
My heart was bumping. It was unbeliev-
able; I'd never felt that way before."
Before leaving the next morning for
Amsterdam, Stern invited Piontek to
breakfast. "We sat down, and he took my
hands in his and said, 'I love you. And
that was the beginning," she said.
Love Blossoms
Their meeting was prophetic in more
ways than one. Piontek gave Stern a
copy of what she considered her "most
important" story, "In the Family Way."
He thought it was outstanding and
passed it on to a friend in publishing
who asked if she had any more. The
German version of Have We Possibly Met
Before? And Other Stories was published
in 2005.
Soon Stern met Piontek's mother, who
approved of her daughter's choice.
"She said it was wonderful to see the
two of us so happy, but that he would
have been too old for her:' Piontek
laughed. Stern was 14 years older than
his future mother-in-law.
Once they began making plans, it
became clear Piontek would be the one
to relocate. Stern was devoted to his
work at the Holocaust Memorial Center
Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington
Hills, where he serves as director of the
center's International Institute of the
Righteous. Piontek, a freelance writer,
agreed to move but was reluctant to leave
her mother, who had become critically ill.
From her hospital bed, Piontek's mother
conveyed her last wish: that her daughter
go to the United States and marry Guy
Stern. Piontek complied. They were mar-
ried by Rabbi Dannel Schwartz at Temple
Shir Shalom on May 11, 2006. Four days
after the wedding, Piontek's mother died.
The first year was challenging, despite
the couple's romantic beginnings.
Piontek found comfort and friend-
ship at Temple Shir Shalom, where she
remains an active participant.
"They took me in as a lost child': she
said. "[The congregation] has become
like a family to me:'
Shir Shalom Rabbi Michael
Moskowitz said, "Susanna Stern has
made her presence felt from the day she
and Guy walked in. The literary lens and
her unique background she brings to
our Torah discussions are appreciated
by us all, but I think what we enjoy most
is how she and her husband always