Steuer Cousins Meet

Several Steuer cousins living in Israel met. We also all met our Judkowitz cousin, visiting his son from New York. We got together in Neve Sha’anan, Haifa since the majority of the cousins lived in Haifa or just outside of Haifa. I went early from Tsfat and met them earlier since I felt I already knew him via all of our Skype chats.

There were two cousins who are descendants of Moritz Steuer & Minna Gruenberg-they are second cousins and have known each other before list gathering. Then there was a cousin and her aunt (she’s 90 years old) who are descendants of Friederike Steuer & Moses Wachsner. Friederike and Moritz were brother and sister and two of Samuel and Eva (Fraenkel) Steuer’s children.

It was a great evening. Found out that Shmuel Meir Jurovics was ultra-orthodox. It was 1937 when the Gestapo came to his house looking for him, B”H he was at shul (it was Friday evening). After the Gestapo left, his wife, Edith Dvora

 Wachsner (our Steuer connection) packed a suitcase for her husband and send the suitcase and his passport with their youngest son to the shul. His son told him not to return home because the Gestapo is looking for him. Shmuel Meir went by train to Belgium to his brother’s. From Belgium he went to his sister’s house in New York.

Our other 90 year old cousin there was in the Jewish Brigade. His father, Fritz Michaelis, was a lawyer in the glass industry in Silesia. This meeting uncovered that two of our cousins’ fathers both had a hand in the Phoenicia Glass Factory in Haifa. Benjamin Jurovics was a Civil Engineer.

I was asked how I initially knew about the Samuel Steuer branch of the family by one of our 90 year old cousins. I had moved back in with my parents for a while and decided to look in the phone book to see if there were any Steuer’s in the area. It so happened there was a Steuer family that lived up the hill from us (about 2 minutes away). I called him and he invited me up to meet him. While I was there, he gave me a copy of a hand-written genealogy in German that had been written by his father, Rabbi Urlich Steuer. This cousin then told me that he remembers Urlich from when he was a child. Urlich was 13 years younger than his father.

Waiting to her more stories and memories.

Another Son of Samuel Steuer Unearthed!

Since I had found sever of Samuel’s descendants in the Eastern Prussian Provinces, Germany [Poland], Selected Civil Vitals, 1874-1945, I decided motzei Rosh HaShanah to do more searches in the Eastern Prussian Provinces, Germany [Poland], Selected Civil Vitals, 1874-1945 records. I found another son of Samuel Steuer and Eva Fraenkel: Moritz Steuer. He was born in 1837 and died 12 Feb 1882, Hindenburg Alt-Zabrze, Prussia.

Moritz (Moses) was a baker when he married Minna (Mandel) Gruenberg, daughter of Jacob Gruenberg & Marie Simon. Later in 1860 Moritz was an Innkeeper. Moritz and Minna had eight children: Wilhelm, Eva, Siegfried, Julius, Albert, Hugo, Margaretha, and Rosa.

There are many Eva’s who were all named after Eva Fraenkel Steuer, she died in April 1861. Friederike Steuer Wachsner’s Eva was born 12 Aug 1863 and named after Friederike’s mother. Moritz Steuer’s (and Minna Gruenberg) first born daughter was named after his mother Eva, born 5 Dec 1863. Bernhard (Shmuel) Steuer and Jettel "Henriette" Eisner also named their first born after his mother Eva, born 29 Oct 1866.

Wilhelm Steuer was Moritz & Minna’s eldest. He married Johanna Herzfeld in 1891. I haven’t yet uncovered any offspring for him, but it’s still early on. Wilhelm died on 12 Oct 1924 and is buried at the Nordfriedhof Cemetery, Section: Neu Juedischer Friedhof, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Nordfriedhof Dusseldorf Cemetery

Marriage of Eva Steuer & Wilhelm Zerkowski

Eva Steuer, daughter of Moritz & Minna, married Wilhelm Zerkowski on 25 Feb 1890 in Hindenburg, Prussia. Eva & Wilhelm had a son:
Wilhelm "Willy" Zerkowski, born 04 Mar 1891. Willy died 15 Oct 1915, Breslau, Prussia of natural causes and is buried at the Friedhof Cosel, Section: World War I Field of Honor, Wroclaw (Breslau), Poland; Plot: Grabstelle 11.

Tombstone of Wilhelm "Willy" Zerkowski

 

Marriage of Margaetha Steuer & Julius Michaelis

Margaretha Steuer married Julius Michaelis, son of Adolf Michaelis & Malchen Baron also Hindenburg, Prussia on 16 Oct 1871.

Siegfried Steuer was born 14 Oct 1865, Krassow (Pszczyna, Prussia).

Julius Steuer was born 11 Mar 1867 in Bytom, Prussia and died just 24 days later on 4 Apr 1867.

 

 

Albert Steuer was born 20 Feb 1868, Zabrze, Hindenburg, Silesia. He married Julia Wyngardt. They had three daughters: Margot, born 19 March 1901, Cologne, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; Ilse Sara, born 15 Sep 1904, Cologne, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Alice, born 02 Feb 1912, Cologne, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and Ruth. Albert was deported in 1942 to Auschwitz and died on 25 Sep 1942 at Treblinka.

 

List of Theresienstadt camp inmates

 

Margot's Declaration of Intention

Margot Steuer married Leopold Dreifuss. They had three children: Walter (born 6 Jul 1922), Helga (born 30 Aug 1924) and another daughter. Both Walter and Helga were born in Germany and emigrated with their parents and arrived in New York on 4 Mar 1940. In 1940 the family lived in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Before our Dreifuss family came to the USA, they lived in London, England. Leopold was a tailor. Both Margot and Leopold are buried at the Cedar Park Cemetery, Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA.

 

Walter was a doctor and lived in East Rockaway, Long Island, New York. I know of him having two children: Janet and David. Helga became a nurse and married Irving A Epstein and they lived in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. They had two daughters: Judith and Jacquelyn and a son.

 

Ilse Steuer married Ernst Phillip Waldheim in 1930, Hemer, Iserlohn, Markischer Kreis, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Ilse and Ernst had two sons: Hans “Harry” and Manfred “Manny” Israel. Ilse, Hans and Manfred all emigrated together. They left Lisbon, Portugal on the 15^th of March, 1941.

 

1941 Passenger List for Ilse Waldheim & sons

Alice Steuer married Isidore Frankel. I know they had at least one son who is currently living in Tel Aviv, Israel.

 

Hugo Steuer was born on 4 Apr 1870, Bytom, Prussia. He perished on 20 December 1942 at Theresienstadt.

 

 

Theresienstadt Memorial

Rosa Steuer was born 7 Oct 1874, Hindenburg Alt-Zabrze, Prussia. She married Paul Honigbaum, son of Salomon Honigbaum & Emilie Rosentein on 25 May 1902 in Hindenburg, Prussia. Rosa lived in Breslau and was deported from Grüssau to Auschwitz and perished on 17 May 1944.

Marriage of Rosa Steuer & Paul Honigbaum

Lotte Jane Wallach, 1955

I just made contact with the grandson of Ruth Steuer Wallach. I’m looking forward to exchanging information with him and finding more out about his grandparents. His grandmother Ruth Steuer married Kurt Wallach, son of Carl Wallach & Lutka Rauch in 1935, Gevelsberg, Germany. They had a daughter, Lotte Jane.

Looking forward to connecting with new cousins.