Samu Stern ( hu, Stern Samu; 5 January 1874 – 8 June 1946) was a businessman,
banker, advisor to the
royal court, and head of Hungary's
Neolog
Neologs ( hu, neológ irányzat, "Neolog faction") are one of the two large communal organizations among Hungarian Jews, Hungarian Jewry. Socially, the liberal and modernist Neologs had been more inclined toward integration into Hungarian society ...
Jewish Community from 1929 to 1945.
After the
March 1944 German occupation, Stern was a member of the German-created
Jewish Council (
Judenrat, Zsidó tanács) along with
Orthodox Community leader
Pinchas Freudiger. The Jewish Council was among recipients of the
Vrba–Wetzler report
The Vrba–Wetzler report is one of three documents that comprise what is known as the ''Auschwitz Protocols'', otherwise known as the Auschwitz Report or the Auschwitz notebook. It is a 33-page eye-witness account of the Auschwitz concentration ...
, also known as the
Auschwitz Protocols
The ''Auschwitz Protocols'', also known as the ''Auschwitz Reports'', and originally published as ''The Extermination Camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau'', is a collection of three eyewitness accounts from 1943–1944 about the mass murder that was ...
, the Auschwitz Report. It detailed the atrocities in Auschwitz. Much like
Rezső Kasztner
Rezső Kasztner (1906 – 15 March 1957), also known as Rudolf Israel Kastner, was a Hungarian-Israeli journalist and lawyer who became known for having helped Jews escape from occupied Europe during the Holocaust. He was assassinated in 1957 af ...
(aka Rudolf), members of the Jewish Council failed to publicize the atrocities and warn the Jews of Hungary of their fate. Although Stern supported
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
causes, he received criticism for dealing willingly with the German occupying authorities and their Hungarian collaborators.
[http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206047.pdf ]
Early life
Samu Stern was born into a Neolog Jewish farming family in
Nemesszalók,
Veszprém County on 5 January 1874. His parents were Lipót Stern and Fáni Hoffmann. His father farmed on a large estate and traded in agricultural products. Samu Stern attended a
yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
for two years, but then he enrolled in a trade school, against his parents' wishes.
See also
*
Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest
The Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest ( hu, Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank, PMKB, occasionally referred to simply as "Commercial Bank") was Hungary's first modern bank, established in 1840–1841. It was nationalized in the early Communist era an ...
References
External links
* http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206047.pdf
* http://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/jews-of-hungary-during-the-holocaust.html
Publications
* Nathaniel Katzburg, ''Shemu’el Shtern: Ro’sh kehilat Pesht,'' in Pedut: Hatsalah bi-yeme sho’ah (Ramat Gan, Isr., 1984)
* Mária Schmidt, ''Kollaboráció vagy kooperáció?'' (Budapest, 1990), pp. 49–111
* Samu (Samuel) Stern, ''A Race with Time: A Statement'', Hungarian Jewish Studies 3 (1973): 1–48
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Samu
1874 births
1946 deaths
Hungarian Jews
Holocaust survivors
Businesspeople from Austria-Hungary
People from Veszprém County
Members of the Jewish Council of Budapest