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News: May 2004

The story of Henry Stone: Holocaust survivor

By Adam Cole

Adam Cole interviewed Henry Stone as part of the “From Generation to Generation” class at Congregation Beth David Hebrew High.

Speaking to a Holocaust survivor is one of the most pleasurable things I have ever had the opportunity to do in my life. Now, pleasurable may not seem the appropriate word for listening to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, but hearing a survivor’s story also gives me a hint of someone being helped by their fellow man in the worst of times, and that is something wonderful.

Henry Stone is inspirational. He is an engineer, like I aspire to be, and his story of survival is an amazing telling of love and respect for his fellow man at a time when that was scarce in the world. Stone started out in Munich, where he was born in 1922. His father had been a soldier during WWI, on the German side, and had gotten shot in the leg. This was to prove helpful during the Holocaust because people respected a man who had fought for the fatherland and sacrificed for his country. Even though he was a Jew, it helped a little — not enough, but a little.

Stone lived “a normal Jewish life,” attended synagogue and received Jewish religious instruction. His family had both Jewish and Christian friends, and were particularly close to one Christian family due to a friendship his father had developed during World War I. While Stone was in high school, the non-Jewish boys had to join the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). He joined the Bund Deutscher Juden which was similar to the boy scouts and organized hikes and trips.

When it became clear to Stone’s family that Germany was no place to be a Jew anymore, they tried to get out of the country. With the enormous and sudden demand to leave, it became very difficult for anyone to succeed at all. One of the only ways to escape was to get an affidavit from America. An opportunity for an affidavit for Henry alone came from a relative in Virginia. Even though this relative had never met Henry, he was willing to sacrifice for Henry to come on condition that Henry master a trade. So, at age 15, Henry apprenticed for 60 hours a week in Berlin, 300 miles from home, to learn machine shop work. As a Jew, Henry was lucky to get this apprenticeship through a Christian, who had formerly been married to Henry’s aunt, who owned a metal working factory. Initially, Henry lived with some distant relatives in Berlin. When that family emigrated in the spring of 1938, Henry had to find lodging with another Jewish family. While in Berlin, Henry joined the Jewish sports club and went to several Jewish cultural affairs.

This affidavit did not allow the rest of the family to emigrate to America, however. Luckily, the Stones were blessed again when a businessman, a total stranger in New York, sent an affidavit for the entire family to the American ambassador in Stuttgart. This was it. It was their ticket out of Germany and to the safe haven of the United States.

Unfortunately, with all the extra work of trying to learn a skill, Henry contracted appendicitis. He returned to Munich and checked into a hospital. This coincided with the now infamous Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, and the Nazis destroyed Jewish stores and synagogues. During Henry’s convalescence, the Gestapo did a sweep of their area. Henry’s father witnessed the damage on his drive to the hospital. Luckily, the Gestapo had missed him that night. Henry’s father hid at the hospital for a few days, but the Gestapo checked daily. Then he spent a week in the apartment of his old Christian friends, who were gracious enough to also pick up the Stones’ car and hide it in their garage.

When they returned to their home, Henry’s father found a little card ordering him to report to Gestapo headquarters. One week later, Henry’s father went. The reception officer noted that he was limping. He inquired and found out that Henry’s father was a World War I veteran. Henry’s father told the officer that he was Jewish and was wondering if the Gestapo was looking for him. The officer asked if Henry’s father had received a card from the Gestapo. Henry’s father said he did not know because he had not been home yet. The officer said he would sign Henry’s father out, but if he found a card waiting for him at home he had to return. When Henry’s father returned with the card the next day, he went to the same officer instead of to the assigned room. The officer remembered that he had signed Henry’s father out the day before and sent him home again — another of the lucky blessings that got this family through. Due to this miracle, Henry believes, his father was the only Jewish male between the ages of 17 and 65 in Munich who did not end up in Dachau.

The New York businessman who was helping them get to the United States met with the American ambassador in Stuttgart and discovered that the Stones’ affidavit had been lost. Despite enormous challenges of getting through German red tape, the Stones acquired new paperwork and they continued their quest for safety and freedom. Only one problem remained: The U.S. required $5,000 to be deposited in an account in New York. Not only was this a large amount of money, but no one in Germany was allowed to own foreign exchange. An incredibly kind stranger in Switzerland loaned the money to the Stone family and arranged for the wire transfer of funds.

The Stones took physical exams, and then picked the ship that would take the longest to get to America. They sailed to New York and randomly picked the city of Buffalo to call their new home. Since the rules only allowed them to leave Germany with $4 per person, Stone’s father gave 1000 marks to four strangers before they sailed, in the hope that these strangers would mail him the money. They all did, and he later received $400 in the mail.

In Buffalo, both Henry and his father got jobs that paid eight and ten dollars a week respectively. Working this way they paid back all their debts, including the $5000 in the bank account that had been required for their travel. Henry was drafted into the army and served for three years in the South Pacific. Then he attended college at SUNY Buffalo and got a degree in engineering. He graduated summa cum laude and received a job offer from General Electric. After working for GE he went on to work in nuclear facilities and now does consulting work in San Jose.

Henry Stone says that the German people knew what was going on. He explains that they lost a lot of scientists and other good people through the stupidity of the Holocaust and that those who escaped to the United States improved this country. To him this is the important lesson that the Nazis forgot: People are good and everyone is valuable. Stone’s story teaches us that even when the odds seem overwhelming, even when we are ready to give up all hope, there are always people ready to perform miracles.

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