Author: Joseph Friedenson

Publisher: Artscroll

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

A biography of Sternbuch (1905-1971), who was born and raised in Antwerp as the daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Rottenberg, Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox community. Following her marriage to Rabbi Yitzchok Sternbuch, they went to live in St. Gallen, Switzerland. From 1938 their home was open to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Recha also set up a rescue network to help Jews cross the border illegally and then go on to other countries. Notes that Saly Mayer, head of the Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund, actually hindered the rescue work. In spring 1939, Recha was arrested and imprisoned briefly for aiding illegal immigrants. In 1941 all charges were dropped, since she also helped Jews obtain visas to other countries, which was in the interest of the Swiss officials. The Sternbuchs then began to send food and medical supplies to Jews in the Polish ghettos and to Jewish refugees in Shanghai, setting up the Hilfsverein für Jüdische Flüchtlinge in Shanghai (HIJEFS). After the war, through this organization, they helped survivors in DP camps, saved Jewish children who had been hidden in non-Jewish homes, and provided aid for many rabbis and Jewish scholars who had survived.