Anna Stern was born in Bad Kissingen on August 6, 1924 as the daughter of Josef and Thekla Stern, née Heimann. She lived with her family in Hemmerichstrasse 29 (now 12), where her father ran a shop for ironware and agricultural machinery. After attending Kliegl Elementary School for four years, she entered the “Mädchenlyzeum der Englischen Fräulein (Mary Ward School) in Bad Kissingen.

Anneliese Metzger, a classmate sitting next to her, describes her: ”… She was small, delicately boned, had curly hair, a soft voice and was inconspicuous. … Anni Stern was very withdrawn. She was quiet and rarely chattered. If Anni Stern had a friend in our class? I don’t think so. … Initially we presumably chattered with her before and after lessons and during the break, just like school children do. But by and by, it changed. Some of our class went to BDM (Bund deutscher Mädel = girls’ organization of the Nazis). … The BDM girls brought new ideas with them and told us that we were not to talk to Jews. The climate was bad. Soon nobody dared speak even a word to Anni Stern. That implied the danger of being denounced as a “Judenfreund” (Jews’ friend). Therefore, during the break, Anni was leaning on the wall on her own or talking to Liesl Ehrlich, another Jewish girl who was in the class below ours. … One day – already before “Reichskristallnacht” (Pogrom Night of 1938) – Liesl Ehrlich was gone. Supposedly, the Ehrlich family had … emigrated. Now Anni Stern was completely isolated. … Eventually, November 1938 arrived and “Reichskristallnacht” with it. … Anni Stern was not at school that morning. I have never seen her again.”

In the following years, Anni obviously lived a very withdrawn life with her mother as she told her brother Ludwig, who had emigrated to the USA on his own in 1939, in her letters: “I would like to write you more often and more. But what should I tell you of my monotonous life. Early in the mornings, I work in the household, go shopping, in the afternoons I study English or go for walks with Mutti. … Hopefully, we will be able to go to you soon.” Anni wrote to her brother even in English, asked him for advice how she could get prepared for the life in the United States. She longed for her emigration.

Her hopes were not fulfilled. On April 24, 1942 the 18-year-old Anni and her mother and other Kissingen Jews were deported to Krasniczyn Ghetto in the vicinity of Lublin via Würzburg. Since then she has been regarded as lost.