Stern Gang

The Stern Gang is mentioned in Andy Warhol’s diary in connection with the 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne in Palestine. The brief reference gives the organization a specific place in the account: it is identified as the group responsible for the killing, which enters the diary through Catherine Guinness’s family history rather than through a direct account of the group’s activities.

The Reference at Dinner

At a dinner hosted by Bob Colacello for Baron Leon Lambert, Catherine Guinness wore a T-shirt bearing the question Where is Palestine? The diary notes that her great-grandfather was Lord Moyne, who had been assassinated there in 1944 by the Stern Gang. The group is thus introduced through the contrast between a political message on Catherine’s clothing and a violent event in her family past.

Place in the Account

The entry does not describe the assassination itself or provide further information about the Stern Gang. Instead, the reference anchors Catherine’s exchange with Lambert in a remembered political history: she asked whether he was Jewish, and the diary records that he was half-Jewish. The organization’s sole stated action gives the dinner anecdote its historical weight, while the surrounding conversation remains focused on the guests’ backgrounds and reactions.