Steuers Popping out of the Woodwork

Another connection made! Thank you Marjorie for writing your article on her husband reclaiming his German citizenship. Julie contacted her because of it and contacted me thanks to Marjorie.

Now I have a bit more information on another child of Bernhard and Henriette (Eisner) Steuer. Up until now I only knew that Eva was born on 29 Oct 1866, Brzezinka, Upper Silesia, Prussia.

Eva was Bernhard and Henriette’s first born, as far as I know. She and her sister Lina were the only two daughters that lived long enough to marry. They were also the only two that I couldn’t find information on their spouses and/or descendants.

This Eva Steuer married Herman Hiller. They moved to Breslau at some point. I was told they owned a successful clothing store called Hillers Department store. Herman was a commodities trader.

So far only know about Herman and Eva’s daughter Ellie who married Ernest

Cohn/Kohn. She was listed as a survivor in the newspaper “Aufbau, Sep 1944-Sep 1946” in the “Published Lists of Survivors”. She died 25 Jan 1956 (Gunther was 10 years old).

Ellie’s husband Ernest was forced to leave his family behind by the Nazis when he fled Germany to Cuba, and later to the USA. Ellie and Ernest’s children were put in an orphanage and stayed there until their father was able to arrange for their escape in 1939 with the help of Jewish charities. Everything they owned was left behind.

Ernest sent his two daughters to South America. I was told that Gunther escaped from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin, in 1939, on the last ship out before war was declared. Gunther departed Hamburg on the SS Hamburg on 10 Aug 1939. He arrived in New York on 18 Aug 1939 at the Port of New York. On the passenger manifest he was listed as Guenther/Hermann Nathan and he was 13 years old.

Gunther registered for the US Army on 05 Sep 1944. Ernest was listed as next of kin on his WWII draft information. They sent him to train with the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence agency. At the time he lived in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri. He found himself back in Berlin, this time hunting war criminals.

He spoke fluent German and worked undercover finding former SS officers, prison guards and other Nazis suspected of murdering Jews and other ethnic minorities during the Holocaust. One story relayed is:

On one occasion, he tracked a former high-ranking colonel to a political meeting in a beer hall. The former colonel had been tipped off that he was being followed. While turned away from Mr. Kohn, the former colonel pulled his pistol, turned and pointed it at Mr. Kohn and was about to pull the trigger. That’s when a U.S. soldier accompanying Mr. Kohn saw what was happening from across the room and shot the colonel in the head.

“That was as close as he got to getting killed.”

Gunther returned to the US and settled in St. Louis, Missouri where he started and operated his own business. Many years later he was one among others who helped found the St. Louis Holocaust Museum.

Family of Jettel (Henrietta) Eisner Steuer

Many, many years ago I came across information on Henrietta’s given name and siblings when I was trying to uncover if my feeling that her mother and her mother-in-law were sisters.

I had found out, through JewishGen’s Gliwice County Births, 1812-47 and Bytom Marriages 1848-74 records, I was able to find her siblings, since I already knew her parents’ names from Rabbi Urlich Steuer’s hand-written family tree.

Lehne Eisner’s marriage date was 03 Apr 1872, Zabrze (Bytom Marriages 1848-74) to Joachim Schueller. Braindel (Pauline) Eisner married Heinrich Pollack on 12 Jul 1865 in Preiswitz. Another daughter of Loebel Eisner and Handel (Hannel/Hanna) Fraenkel, Marianna, was married to Isaac Sorski on 10 Feb 1864 and her daughter Rosalie became the wife of an innkeeper, David Knoke on 14 Feb 1861 in Bytom.

The information that was more of interest to me was proving what I always felt about Henriette (Jettel), daughter of Loebel Eisner and Handel (Hannel/Hanna) Fraenkel, was that her mother-in-law, Eva Fraenkel Steuer and her mother were sisters.

According to her mother’s Eastern Prussian Provinces Death Certificate, Handel (Hannel/Hanna) Fraenkel Eisner’s parents were Löbel Fränkel (Cohen) and Rosel (Rosa) Löwy. Rosel was born in 1777, Pless County, Upper Silesia, Prussia and Löbel was born in 1779. They lived in Nicolai and Urbanowitz. Löbel Fränkel died 15 Feb 1844 in Pless County, Upper Silesia, Prussia.

Löbel Fränkel (Cohen) and Rosel (Rosa) Löwy had seven children that I know of: Isaac Fränkel, born in Dec 1800; Handel Fränkel, born in 1803, Pless County; Eva Fränkel, born in 1805, Pless County; Lendel Fränkel, born in 1808, Pless County; Babette Fränkel, born in 1810, Pless County; Hirschel Fränkel, born in 1813, Pless County and Joachim Fränkel, born in 1816, Pless County.

Eva Fränkel was married to Samuel Steuer and their son Bernhardt married Eva’s niece, Jettel (Henriette), her sister Handel’s daughter.

Sherlock did it once again.

So close, yet unknown to each other they survived

It was back in January 2004 when Eva STEUER Halas called me from across the Atlantic Ocean (5737.7 miles away). She told me that it had been about 50 years since she was in touch with her first cousins, brother and sister, Georg & Kato Steuer, who also were survivors. She didn’t think any of her relatives were still living since her only known relative she knew of that wasn’t in Europe at the time of the Holocaust was the famous trial attorney, Max D Steuer. She happened to see another Steuer attorney speaking on tv and called him to ask if they might be related. He quickly gave her my name and phone number since he knew I was the family historian and genealogist.

Rabbi Abraham Steuer

In researching more on Rabbi Abraham Steuer’s brother Salamon and his descendants, I found that Pal (Paul) Bard was a survivor and lived in Montreal, Canada. His mother was Adel/Adela STEUER Bard, the daughter of Salamon STEUER and Rezi Szipszner. Paul submitted Pages of Testimony not only for his mother and brother, but for his mother’s brothers: Dezso Sebestyén (born Steuer), Nandor and Alexander.

Paul Bard

I also have been in touch with the granddaughter of Ilona (Hana) STEUER Levi, daughter of Salamon STEUER and Rezi Szipszner. She did know Paul Bard, but unfortunately doesn’t know much about her Steuer family. She and Paul lived so close to Eva, but they never were able to connect. I know Eva would have loved to have known more of her family survived. Only if I had found out, even some of this information, before she died so I could have shared it with her.