Kammala wannan jumlar: Hellmut Stern an haife shi ne a Berlin cikin dangin Yahudawa. Mahaifinsa, Dittmar Stern, malamin murya ne, kuma mahaifiyarsa, Ilse Rose Stern, 'yar wasan piano ce. Mahaifiyarsa ta koya masa buga piano tun yana dan shekara biyar. Ya halarci makarantar yahudawa a Wilmersdorf, inda wani mai ba da gudummawa ya ba da garaya ga ɗalibi mafi baiwa, wanda ya karɓa yana ɗan shekara tara. Iyalin sun yi ƙoƙari su yi ƙaura a farkon 1933. Bayan da
A watan Nuwamba Pogrom a 1938, sun tsere daga Berlin zuwa Harbin, yanzu a China, inda mahaifiyarsa ta sami kwangilar almara a matsayin pianist. A cikin gudun hijira, Stern ya taimaka wa kudin shiga na iyali a matsayin pianist da violinist, wasa a cikin sanduna, wuraren shakatawa da otal-otal. A shekara ta 1948, iyalin suka yi hijira zuwa Isra'ila. A matsayinsa na ɗan wasan piano na mashaya a Otal din King David a Urushalima a 1951, ya haɗu da Isaac Stern, wanda ya shirya masa gwajin don Orchestra Philharmonic na Isra'ila a Tel Aviv. Ya sami mukaminsa na farko a ƙungiyar mawaƙa a matsayin ɗan wasan violin na biyu.