This Holocaust-Related Death Is a Noteworthy One

Gertrud Steinl was 97
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 23, 2020 7:11 AM CDT
Last Surviving German Who Saved Jews During Holocaust Has Died
Photo shows view of section of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp on Feb. 6, 1961 in Oswiecim, Poland.   (AP Photo)

Gertrud Steinl, the last surviving German honored for saving Jews during the Holocaust, has died, the AP reports. German news agency dpa quoted the head of Nuremberg's Jewish community, Andre Freud, as saying Steinl died Monday, on the eve of her 98th birthday. Steinl, a Sudeten German, was recognized in 1979 as Righteous Among the Nations, Israel's highest honor to those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

According to an entry on the Yad Vashem website, Steinl was an overseer in the Polish town of Stryj during World War II when a worker confided in her that she was Jewish. Steinl sent the woman, Sarah Shlomi (née Froehlich), to live with her parents—likely ensuring she wasn't deported to a Nazi concentration camp.

(More Holocaust stories.)

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