Alfred "Freddy" Steiner

Freddy Steiner was born in 1922 in Berlin. His father was Aladar and his mother was Aranka and he had a younger sister named Lilly.  

Freddy’s father had a wholesale clothing factory in Berlin where he produced and sold gabardine coats. Freddy worked at the factory and learned the trade from the bottom up. They lived in an apartment in the Prenzlauer Berg District, they went to a Jewish school and had mostly Jewish friends. The family kept Kosher.

The Nazis came to power in 1933 and by 1935, things were getting worse for the Jews. In 1938, a Nazi soldier came to their apartment with a couple. The family was told that the couple was taking their apartment and they could only take enough clothes that they could carry. Aladar’s factory and his car was also confiscated. They fled to Hungary in 1938 because Aladar and Aranka still had Hungarian citizenship.

Life in Hungary was ok at first, but they soon started to experience antisemitism. Freddy would sometimes get into fights with the kids who called him names. They lived on the 4th floor of an apartment above a beer factory and attended Shabbat services every Friday night and all the Jewish holidays at the Doheny synagogue. Aladar became a partner at a clothing factory from 1938-44. 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 a Gentile. Freddy met a woman named Eva and they were married. Aladar wanted to get papers for Freddy, Lilli and Aranka but Aranka was too scared of being discovered, so they started wearing the yellow star. By 1940, the number of Jews living in Hungary began to be decrease. Jews were forced to enlist in special forced labor army units, including Freddy who was sent to Poland to dig ditches.

Aladar moved Lilly and Aranka to the factory where he worked. He had around 400 Jews working at the factory, including Freddy’s wife, Eva, and Aladar’s sister Elvira, brother Oscar and cousin. They made and repaired uniforms until Christmas 1944, when they were taken to the Budapest ghetto.

During Freddy’s time in the forced labor unit, the rest of the family continued living in the Ghetto around the Doheny Street Synagogue until its liberation by the Russian Army on Jan. 17, 1945.

Aladar’s friend told him he saw Freddy and that he was dying. Luckily, Freddy did come back, having been nursed back to health 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 their horse.

HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) helped Freddy and his sister Lilly immigrate to the U.S. in 1947. The siblings of Freddy’s father Aladar were already living in the U.S. Aladar and Aranka were unable to get off Ellis Island and were instead set to Venezuela. Aladar’s brother’s lawyer tried to help them but they were kicked out of Venezuela when they found out they had a false passport. They then went to Cuba. They weren’t allowed to work, and Freddy and Lilly sent them money until they were able to leave after 1 year in 1951.

Freddy settled in New York and worked as a tailor. His wife Eva opened a beauty salon. Freddy and Eva had a daughter named Hedy. Freddy regularly had nightmares of his ordeals. He died of a heart attack in 1991.

Bio based on memories of his nephew Mike Fisher.