Figure 1.--This family family photo shows the Bernstein family of Stockport, England, in 1913. Harry who became a writer is the youngest of the children sitting on his mother's lap. He was born and raised on a poverty-stricken street in an English mill town where Jews and Christians were strictly divided. Harry as a child of three appears to be wearing a dark, one-piece suit of some kind with calf-length pants, ankle socks, and leather hightop shoes. His two older brothers wear white blouses, knee pants, and long black stockings. The two older sisters have bows in their hair. The photograph appears to have been taken outside their family house in Stockport.

Harry Bernstein (England/United States (1910- )

Harry Bernstein grew up in Stockport, England. Harry was the youngest child in his family. Here we see the family in 1913 (figure 1). Harry was raised on a poverty-stricken street in an English mill town where Jews and Christians were strictly divided. His parents were imigrants from Poland. His latest book, The Invisible Wall was published when the author was 96 years old. It is a memoir describing the anti-Semitic bigotry of which his family was a victim. It also tells the story of extreme poverty and the Romeo and Juliet romance of Berstein's older sister. Berstein wrote a three-part article entitled "Twelve Years in an English Ghetto." Bernstein recounts his childhood experiences at the hands, rough-dealing his harsh father, who once dragged his sister Lily through the streets by the hair and forced her to forgo her educational ambitions and work for almost slave wages in a tailoring shop. The family imigrated to the United States when Harry was 12 years old. Harry Berstein and his wife now live in New Jersey near the seashore.

Sources

Bernstein, Harry. The Invisible Wall (Hutchinson/Random House, 2007). This memoir was written as a reaction to the death of his wife, Ruby.






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Created: 7:13 PM 7/24/2007
Last edited: 7:14 PM 7/24/2007