Babette Stern, née Hamburger came from one of the oldest Jewish families of Hammelburg, whose roots reach back to the middle of the 18^th century. The tradition of being cattle dealers was widely spread in the family and Babette’s father Meier Hamburger also had this profession. Babette Stern was born in Hammelburg on February 16, 1881 as the first of nine children of Meier Hamburger and his wife Fanny, née Frankenthaler from “Unterw(!)eisenheim” (presumably Untereisenheim).

In May 1904, Babette married the merchant Heinrich Stern from Bad Kissingen, who had taken on his father’s firm “Hermann Stern” in Ludwigstrasse, and moved to her husband in the spa town.

At the end of the 1920s, she was apparently seriously ill, which is why her husband resigned their seat at the synagogue. For health reasons, she was unable to attend the synagogue for the foreseeable future.

Not much is known about her further life. In August 1941 – literally at the last moment – she and her husband managed to flee from Germany. Only few months later, in October 1941, Hitler’s government enacted a complete ban on emigration. The childless couple emigrated to Cuba and later to the USA. In December 1942, they got to the United States via Miami/ Florida and settled in Chicago. Babette Stern died in Oakridge/ Illinois in 1957 at the age of 76. Her husband, who was 10 years her senior, had already died there in July 1951.