Dr. Chaim Sternbach was born in Drohobych, Galicia, Poland, on 6 Dec 1885, the son of Samuel Kanarienstein and Deborah Sternbach (if Jews evaded a civil ceremony in Galicia in those days their children had to take their mother’s last name). They were a poor family: Samuel had a horse and carriage and transported goods for others.
Dr. Sternbach had four older siblings died in infancy, an older sister who emigrated to the USA, one younger brother who died 1945 in the St. Valentin camp of Mauthausen and one other younger brother whose fate is unknown.
He obtained his law degree at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Married Sala Engel in Drohobycz, Poland.
His only child, Eva, was born in Stanislau, Poland, in 1913 (today Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)
The family moved to Vienna where Chaim registered as a lawyer in 1917.
Interned in Dachau 3 Jun 1938 – 23 Sep 1938
Transferred to Buchenwald 23 Sep 1938
Released and returned to Vienna. Left Vienna 15 Dec 1938 with the intention of emigrating to England where his wife and daughter had emigrated to.
Sep 1939 living in Milano, St. Gallo Str. 3
Interned in Urbisaglia 25 July 1940
Transferred to Sforzacosta 30 Sept 1943
He was in Mogliano on Nov. 24, 1943
Moved to Concentration Camp Fossoli di Carpi in Modena on 29 Jan 1944
Moved on 5 April 1944 to Auschwitz arriving 10 April 1944
He did not survive.
Sources: Mrs Marion Scott (Dr Sternbach’s grandaughter), Archivio di Urbisaglia, CDEC Digital Library.
