Misha Shternberg was shell-shocked at the front in the beginning of the war--from then on he had awful headaches and therefore was freed of subsequent service in the army. He was sent to Omsk, where he was in charge of a grain warehouse. He was asked to sign a document about having received a fictitious shipment of grain; when he refused to sign, he was told that he would be sent back to the front. At the front he was asked to "test" a field that was mined by the Nazis. He was killed by a mine.

Misha's wife, their daughter and their two sons, were killed by the Nazis in Nikopol.