22 May 2 • 2019 jn JUDY GREENWALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER An Unlikely Hero Stark family owes its survival to Detroit businessman Herman Osnos. I magine this: It’ s 1936. You’ re a 16-year-old boy living in Munich with your parents and your younger brother and sister. With the ever-in- creasing danger of being Jewish in Nazi Germany, subject to the horrifically harsh Nuremburg Laws, terrifying bands of Hitler Youth vandalizing homes and businesses, and the indis- criminate disappearance of friends and neighbors, your parents make the diffi- cult decision to send you to England. Move ahead to 1937. After experienc- ing freedom and education at Buxton College, whose headmaster A.D.C. Mason gained notoriety for accepting German Jewish youths escaping fascist tyranny, you still fear for your family’ s safety. Using your newfound command of English, you begin urgently writing dozens of letters, desperately searching for someone who can help your family escape to a better life in the United States. Then, in 1938, against all odds, mere weeks before the violence of Kristallnacht would break out, you find a generous Jewish businessman in Detroit who makes the unbelievable promise to provide affidavits for you and your brother, and later, for your parents and little sister. Sounds like the plot of a thrilling World War II movie, no? But for Dr. Robert Stark, it’ s the true story of his family’ s rescue by Herman Osnos, owner of the iconic Sam’ s Cut-Rate Department Store on Randolph Street in Detroit’ s Campus Martius district. And it’ s a story of friendship, one that began with the heroic actions of a stranger reaching out to help people in need and has continued over the years. ESCAPING THE NAZIS “My grandparents, Hermann and Klara Stark, fearful over the safety of their three children, made the reluctant decision to send their eldest son — my father, Walter — to England,” Stark, of Greenwich, Conn., explained. “While there, he saw how bad things were getting in Germany, and he started writing letters to strangers or to people he thought might be relatives, trying to get his family out. “My dad wrote one fateful letter in 1937 to Albert Schmidt, a non-Jewish former employee of my grandfather’ s clothing store who had moved to Detroit. (My grandfather even gave Schmidt some suits to take with him to America!) In the letter, my dad pleaded: ‘ My family is in danger; do you have any way of helping us to get over?’ Schmidt took the letter to his boss, Herman Osnos, who made the incredi- ble decision to help by providing affida- vits for my dad and my uncle Werner, people he’ d never met, swearing he’ d be responsible for them. That’ s how they were able to escape in the fall of 1938.” Stark’ s father and uncle were safe, but his grandparents and Aunt Lilo were still trapped in Germany. “ After Kristallnacht, my family went into hiding in the Black Forest,” Stark said. “Then, in 1939, Mr. Osnos again gave three affidavits for my grand- parents and aunt, who also came to Detroit. My family was immensely grateful for the lifesaving actions of this generous man!” Osnos, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, was born in 1900 in New York and grew up on his family’ s farm in New Jersey. He moved to Detroit and began working at Sam’ s Cut-Rate, even- tually becoming a company executive. He married in 1920, and he and his wife, Helen, had a son, Gilbert. Stark said his family kept in touch with the Osnos family, and they even sent him a gift for his bar mitzvah. He said the two families lost touch after the Osnos family moved to Stamford, Conn., but then, when Stark also moved to Connecticut to begin his medical practice as a cardiologist, he decided to look up Herman to renew the relationship. HERMAN OSNOS’ LEGACY “I found Herman as an elderly man in a nursing home in Stamford,” Stark said. “I visited him once, and then shortly afterward, he passed away. Then when my son David had his bar mitzvah, I invited Gilbert and his family to attend. David remembers that the Osnos fam- ily’ s presence almost overshadowed his big day!” During another visit to the Stark’ s house, Gilbert brought a large box with him. “In the box were copies of the many letters my father had written pleading for someone to rescue him,” Stark remembered. “I learned Gilbert had donated the originals to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. During a 2018 trip to Washington, my family, including my three sisters who live in Michigan, saw those original letters. It was very moving to see my father’ s handwrit- ing as a 17-year-old boy, and I was so impressed that he could do such a thing.” According to the museum’ s records detailing Osnos’ correspon- dence: “Herman Osnos was a Jewish American businessman who supported many European Jewish refugees in their quests to immigrate to the United States before and after the Holocaust … While working for Sam’ s Cut-Rate and during the period of increasing hostility and persecution against Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, Herman advocated for Jewish refugees’ entrance into the United States. “ As an advocate, Herman served as a member of the Jewish Welfare Board and attempted to help as many refu- gees as he could seek asylum in the United States. Nearly all of the persons requesting help from Mr. Osnos had never met him and had only heard through friends or colleagues that he was willing and able to supply affidavits of support.” “My family was so fortunate to have someone like Herman Osnos rescue them from an oppressive regime,” Stark said with emotion. “Nowadays, we have a similar obligation to help others. Issues of immigration and refugees have always been of special interest in our family. Whenever I read about a dire situation in Syria or Central America, I think about ways we could help. “It was tremendously moving to see my father’ s letters in the Archival Collection of the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Hopefully their public display will influence others to do similar acts of lovingkindness for people in need.” ■ To learn more about Herman Osnos, access the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History at djnfoundation.org. jews d in the Yom HaShoah A 1938 photo of Walter (left) and Werner (right) just prior to leaving Germany. Below: Urgent 4/9/38 telegram from Stark family in Munich to Mr. Osnos: “Our future now depends upon your favor.” rner any. ark ture or.” . p p y a m i D i b h h m p S h p p Left to right: January 1937 letter from Walter Stark (at Buxton boarding school) to Herman Osnos in Detroit, Nov. 4, 1937; letter from Walter Stark (at boarding school in England) to Osnos. PHOTOS (COURTESY OF DR. ROBERT STARK)