Photo reunites cousins separated by Holocaust

Charlotte Observer
Metro Editor
On Television
Posted on Wed, Feb. 23, 2005

A 67-year-old black and white photograph has brought healing and new family to a Durham man.

For years, Fred Hertz, 83, thought many of his family members were killed in Auschwitz and only he, his mother, father, sister and brother escaped.

Then his phone rang and he heard a voice he didn’t recognize. Henry Stern, 75, of Opelika, Ala., was calling to tell Hertz he’d seen his name on a Holocaust survivors list and wanted to know if they might be related.

Stern sent the old photograph to Hertz, and he called Henry back and told him to sit down. He said, “Henry, I’m in that picture. I’m the teenage boy in the tie standing right behind you.” The cousins hadn’t seen each other since the day that picture was taken in 1937.

Hertz and Stern had their unlikely family reunion in Durham on Jan. 24.

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