Lilly Steiner

Lilly Steiner was born on Aug. 13th 1927 in Berlin. She, her brother Freddy who was five years older, and their parents, Aladar and Aranka (Farkas) lived in an apartment on Josty Strasse 10 in the Prenzlauer Berg District. Lilly attended a Jewish school across from a Catholic school and had mostly Jewish friends. The family kept Kosher.

Lilly’s maternal grandparents were Michael and Freeda Farkas.  Both sides of the family were originally from Hungary but had lived in Germany since Aladar and Aranka were young children. In WWI, Aladar served in the German Army. He was trained as a tailor and had a clothing factory with around 200 employees in Berlin. His son Freddy also worked at the factory.

After the Nazis came to power, Lilly and her family had to start wearing the yellow Star of David on their clothing. Lilly recalls an incident where she and her father had rocks throws at them. They both decided not to tell Lilly’s mother in order not to worry her.  Lilly’s also recalled, that there was a march of Nazi troops, where the Germans raised their hands in salute and said “Heil Hitler” but Aladar did not salute and was struck in the face, knocking out some teeth.

One day a Nazi soldier came to their apartment with a doctor and his wife. Lilly and her parents were told the couple was taking their apartment and they could only take the clothes they could carry. Lilly had a favorite doll she was holding tight and the doctor snatched it from her and said he was giving it to his daughter. Lilly wanted to grab it back, but her father told her not to. Aladar’s factory and car were confiscated. She had three Polish jewish friends that were taken away and never heard from again.

Lilly and her family fled to Hungary in 1938 because Aladar and Aranka still had Hungarian citizenship. Lilly’s maternal grandparents fled to Cuba. They couldn’t get into the U.S. due to the immigration quota for European Jewish refugees. Lilly and her parents went to see them off at the train station in Vienna.

Soon after arriving in Hungary, Lilly again experienced anti-Semitism. Kids at school would call her names, and she would get into fights with them because of this. She said the Hungarians were more anti-Semitic than the Germans. Lilly said “your best friends would become your worst enemy.” Her friend’s brother threatened to cut off Aranka’s finger if she didn’t give him her wedding ring. Lilly and her family could have left Hungary but her father Aladar thought the problems would blow over.

They lived on the 4th floor of an apartment above a beer factory and attended Shabbat services and celebrated all the Jewish holidays at the Doheny synagogue. Aladar became a partner at a clothing factory in Budapest. They later moved to an apartment on the outskirts of Budapest and Aladar’s partner (who was a Baron) helped him get papers saying he was gentile. He wanted to get papers for Lilly and her mother Aranka, but Aranka was too scared of being discovered, so Lilly and her mother started wearing the yellow star. Around 1940, Lilly’s brother Freddy was sent to Poland to dig ditches as part of forced labor imposed on the Jews.

In 1944, Germany invaded Hungary and Lilly and her mother were forced to relocate into a “Judenhaus”, where they were forced to share an apartment with another family. They had to observe a 5pm curfew. Lilly had twin aunts.  One of them was sent to Auschwitz, but she died in the cattle car on the way there. She was pregnant with twins. After this event, Lilly’s mother told her that she couldn’t go on and wanted to give up. Lilly told her a white lie about a dream she had, where an old man told her they were going to survive. This is what allowed Aranka to have hope and survive.

Aladar moved Lilly and Aranka to the factory where he worked. Aladar himself lived with his boss, who helped hide his Jewish identity. He had 600 Jews working at the factory, including Freddy’s wife and Lilly’s aunts, uncles and Aladar’s cousin.

The whole family slept and ate in the factory for over a year until Aladar’s true identity was discovered. The family was then sent to the ghetto around the Doheny synagogue where they lived for the next 9 months, sleeping in the basement on wooden doors and with very little to eat. Outside they could hear bombings and shooting. Lilly remembers walking on the street with her aunt carrying a soup pot. While walking, she saw dead bodies piled up in the butcher shop. She could still remember the stench many years later. People were committing suicide. When people were sick or they disobeyed, they were killed by the people running the Ghetto. Kapos (Jewish policemen) acted as guards. Some were nice, others were not.

According to Lilly’s memory, she heard that the ghetto had been surrounded by bombs and they were plans to blow it up. The Nazis began deportation from the Ghetto. The ghetto was liberated by the Russians in 1945 when Lilly was 19. Lilly’s family had lived in the Ghetto for nine months.

Lilly and her parents went to their apartment in Budapest which was in very bad shape. Lilly had to hide in a drawer for 2 weeks on the bottom of a sofa bed. Some Russians raped and looted until a couple of Russian soldiers were hanged to restore order. They lived in Hungary for 9 years from 1938-1947. At some point, Lilly’s bother Freddy came back from the forced labor, having been kept alive by a Russian soldier. Aladar got a horse and buggy and traded for food in the country. It was winter and they burned furniture to keep warm and had to eat the horse.

Lilly got to Paris where she was in a hospital recovering from malnutrition. She then stayed at a hotel and received food coupons. She couldn’t keep down her food. HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) helped them immigrate to the U.S.  After two years the immigration quota opened up and they were able to immigrate to the U.S. in 1947. She arrived on a Friday and started working the following Monday. She learned how to make ladies underwear. She also sold bridal gowns earning $22 per week.

Lilly’s grandparents and uncle were already in the U.S. Aladar and Aranka couldn’t enter the U.S. so they went to Cuba and Lilly visited them every year. Because they were not allowed to work, Lilly and Freddy sent them money. While in Cuba, Lilly met Laszlo Fischer (a widower originally from Hungary) and they married in Miami Beach in 1950. After marrying, Lilly stayed in the U.S. to become a citizen. Laszlo had a son from a previous marriage. Lilly and Laszlo stayed in Cuba for 11 years. They had 2 children who were both born in the U.S. Life was good until the Communists took over Cuba forcing them to flee to the U.S. After the revolution in 1959 their kids would come home crying because the kids were calling them ‘gringo’. This brought back terrible memories for Lilly of how the kids in Germany and Hungary would call her names.

Lilly and Laszlo moved to NY in 1960 and had another son. Laszlo and Lilly divorced in 1964. Lilly moved with her three children to Miami in 1970. Lilly married Julius Zucker in 1977 and had a good marriage until Julius died in 1999. Lilly’s two youngest sons married and had children.

Aladar read everything he could get his hands on about the Holocaust and wrote about his experiences. He and Freddy regularly had nightmares of their ordeals. Aladar died of a heart attack in 1969 and Lilly’s brother Freddy died in 1991 of a heart attack. Lilly visited Germany with her husband Julius at the invitation of the German government to commemorate the end of WWII. Lilly died in 2000 of a brain aneurysm.

Lilly’s most terrible memories included people that informed on and stole from each other. But there were good people like the janitor from her school who brought them food. Lilly said she was lucky she was able to shut out the bad memories. She didn’t see herself as a victim. She didn’t want to watch or listen to anything that reminded her of those times. She said while it’s hard to understand why the Jews didn’t fight back more, she also said the Nazis had taken everything out of them. Lilly didn’t share her story with anyone until in 1982 when visiting Israel. Lilly said, “I’m proud of the Israelis” and “I respect how they fight back ... something like this (the Holocaust) could never happen there.” How did she survive? Courage, hope, her family. She said, “I went through some tough times, but I always kept my faith and believed things would get better.” She said “For me, religion is to be a mensch. To treat others right.”