Eva Steuer, daughter of Bernhard & Henriette

In November 2018 I was contacted by Julie regarding her great-grandmother, Eva Steuer. She didn’t know much about Eva, but did know she was related to Rabbi Urlich Steuer.

I was able to let Julie know that Eva was the daughter of Bernhard Steuer & Henriette Eisner. Julie was only able to tell me about Eva’s husband and daughter Ellie Hiller. Now I have been able to find out more about Eva’s family.

Thanks to Berlin birth records, I found other children of Hermann and Eva (Steuer) Hiller. Eva Steuer Hiller was the mother of Ellie, born 22 Feb 1885; Johanna, born 23 Jan 1894, Berlin; Wilhelm, born 29 Oct 1896, Berlin and died 04 Feb 1897, Berlin; Bertha, born 08 Mar 1898, Berlin; and Ernst, born 07 Oct 1899, Berlin.

Bertha Hiller married and had at least one daughter Elfriede Hiller (Siedner). Bertha and Elfriede emigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1959. 

Ernst Hiller married Berta Drachmann, daughter of Jacob Drachmann and Iohanne Birnzweig. Ernst and Berta had at least one daughter, Beatriz Eva Hiller, born 08 May 1929 in Berlin. Ernst and his family emigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ernst entered Rio de Janeiro in August 1949, 21 Jul 1950 and on 13 Apr 1955. Berta and Beatriz Eva Hiller emigrated in 1950.

Beatriz Eva Hiller

Berta Drachmann Hiller

Still searching for more information on Hillers that went to Rio de Janeiro, more information on Hermann Hiller, as well as Johanna Hiller. As far as I know, Eva Steuer Hiller died in 1926, Brzezinka, Upper Silesia.

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.