Manfred Stern

Manfred Stern (in Spain known as Emilio Kleber): was born in 1896 in Woloka (Buchovina, Austrian Empire), near Czernowitz. He began to study medicine but was mobilized during Word War I and sent to the Russian front. In 1916 he was taken prisoner and, after the 1917 revolution he was liberated and fought with the Bolsheviks. He began then a brilliant military career in Russia and in the Far East. In September 1936 he was sent to Spain and when the formation of the International Brigade was decided, he was the commander of the I.B. battalions who take part in the defense of Madrid. But the Spanish General Miaja, responsible of the Madrid defense, did not get along with him an accused him of having commited some grave errors. He was called back to Moscow, tried for treason and "Zionism" and sent to Siberia where he died in 1954.

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