Kurt Steinhardt (M / Germany, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Kurt Steinhardt (M / Germany, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Jules Steinhardt (M / Germany, 1930), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Children of La Hille> -- <Germany> -- <Refugees, Belgium> <Home Speyer> -- <Refugees, France> <Seyre> <Chateau de La Hille> -- <Refugees, Spain> <Refugees, Portugal> <SS Mouzinho> <Refugees, United States>

Biography

Jules Steinhardt was born in Aachen, Germany on July 27, 1930, and his brother Kurt on February 14, 1932. Their arrival in America ended a tragic nightmare that began when they were young children in Nazi Germany.

Their father, Max Steinhardt, born in Zosnerwitze on May 27, 1898, was an engraver and married Sofie Mimetz on August 23, 1928, born on January 22, 1901 in Aachen. After the Nazi pogrom in November 1938, Max Steinhardt was forced to leave his home at Harscampstrasse 61 and give up his business at Peterstrasse 2 in Aachen. At first he fled alone to Belgium to prepare for the arrival of his family. In the summer of 1939 he managed to organize their entry into Belgium and drove to Liège to meet them there. Due to a regrettable mishap, he was unable to find his wife and sons. Worried and desperate, he suffered a heart attack and died on August 17, 1939 without knowing that his family had arrived safely in Belgium.

In Belgium the two children were hosted as refugees at Home Speyer. When Germany invaded Belgium in 1940, all of the orphanages fled. Their orphanage was part of a group that fled to France. The children spent the winter in Seyre before finally settling at Chateau de La Hille in the Pyrenees. In the summer of 1941, Jules and Kurt were part of a group of 22 children who were allowed to emigrate to the United States. With the help of HIAS, they boarded the SS Mouzinho in Lisbon and landed in New York in late June of 1941.

“A long journey from home was ended yesterday by 111 children from the conquering and conquered countries of Europe. They came from Germany itself and from Germany's vassal states and carry memories of hardship and horror and promises of hope with them. "

This is what the journalist Nancy Kelly wrote in the New York Daily News on June 22, 1941 about the refugee children who had arrived in New York harbor on the Portuguese liner SS Mouzinho from Lisbon the day before.

The article continues: “The United States Committee for the Care of European Children arranged their passage and selected them from thousands of helpless victims of the war. It was reminiscent of Jules Steinhardt, 11, and his brother Kurt, 9 [...]. Kurt got sick on the train and for two days and nights Jules sat next to him, refusing to sleep and nursing him and giving him medicine and trying to cheer him up by telling him how wonderful it would be in America. "