Last German honored by Yad Vashem for saving Jews during Holocaust dies

Gertrud Steinl, who died last week on eve of her 98th birthday, was declared Righteous Among the Nations for saving woman in Polish town of Stryj

By AP 22 March 2020, 9:50 pm

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A special section of Yad Vashem that pays tribute to the Righteous of the Nations. (Naama Bar-Am)

BERLIN, Germany — Gertrud Steinl, the last surviving German honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem for saving Jews during the Holocaust, has died.

German news agency dpa on Sunday quoted the head of Nuremberg’s Jewish community, Andre Freud, 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.

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Steinl sent the woman, Sarah Shlomi (née Froehlich), to live with her parents — likely ensuring that Shlomi would not be deported to a Nazi concentration camp.