Thekla Stern was born in Schwanfeld on August 8, 1891 as the daughter of the horse dealer Isaak Heimann and his wife Elisa, née Heimann. There she attended the seven-year Elementary School. Her leaving report of 1905 characterizes her as an extremely diligent and gifted student.

In March 1920, Thekla married the 30-year-old Josef Stern from Steinach in Schwanfeld and moved to Bad Kissingen, Kapellenstrasse 18d with him. He founded a business for ironware and agricultural machinery there. One year later, their son Ludwig was born. In 1924, their daughter Anna (called Anni) followed. At that time, the family already lived in their house in Hemmerichstrasse 29 (now 12).

But the happy life of the family didn’t last long: After Josef Stern had been killed in a car accident in October 1929, Thekla had to run the business during the global economic crisis and care for the family on her own. In the Nazi Era, the economic situation got even worse because of the boycott actions, though her brother Hermann provided some financial support. Surely, the separation from her son was also not easy for her. Ludwig left Realschule when he was 15 in order to start an apprenticeship in a bank near Augsburg. In 1938, Thekla had to say her final good-bye to him. He succeeded in emigrating to the USA via Holland. 

Because of a trivial incident, Thekla Stern and a non-Jewish farmer from Ramsthal were reported to the police in March 1941. In spite of the risk of being denounced, the farmer was as courageous as to take 14 eggs to Thekla Stern’s flat. The Mayor of Bad Kissingen, Adalbert Wolpert, forwarded the complaint of Kissingen’s Criminal Investigation Department to Würzburg Gestapo (Secret Police of the State). They demanded from the Schweinfurt Prosecutor to start criminal proceedings against the Ramsthal farmer and extend them to Thekla Stern and “to apply for a sensitive prison sentence against her” (StAW Gestapo 15361). It can’t be found out from the Gestapo file what consequences this had for the two of them.

After his emigration to the USA, Thekla’s son Ludwig tried everything to fetch his mother and sister, but without success. Thekla turned to her siblings who had already emigrated to the USA, asking for their help. She hoped they would pay for the crossing and provide the guarantee necessary. In her letters to Ludwig she sometimes complains about the hard-heartedness of her siblings. Inspite of constant disillusionment, Thekla Stern didn’t give up.

In her last letter from October 1941, the mother consoles her son. He shouldn’t give up his hope for their reunion before long and stay in contact via letters with her: “Today is the 23^rd and I would have wanted to wait for your letter. But you will get my news because I intend to write to you as long as it is possible. And shouldn’t it be possible, wait patiently.” Thekla Stern’s fight for an emigration to the USA stayed without success. She couldn’t save herself and her daughter. Both of them were deported on April 24, 1942 via Würzburg to Krasniczyn Ghetto near Lublin, where they are regarded as lost.