Sonja Sternberg was born in Berlin in June 1926. Her father was taken away by Germans and deported to Poland in 1938 and after Kristallnacht, Sonja’s family were ordered to leave their apartment. To flee Germany, Sonja’s mother arranged for the family to travel to Cuba on the SS St Louis which set sail from Hamburg in May 1939. However, after crossing the Atlantic, the ship was refused entry to Cuba. After being stranded in Havana Port for seven days and then turned away from Florida, they were forced to return to Europe and were eventually given permission to come to England via Antwerp.
Sonja and her family settled in London where Sonja enrolled on a dressmaking course and later had a dressmaking business. Sonja married Ad in 1957 and they had two children.
Sonja’s book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.