Last German honoured for saving Jews during Holocaust dies

BERLIN – Gertrud Steinl, the last surviving German honoured 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 honour 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.

Steinl sent the woman, Sarah Shlomi (née Froehlich), to live with her parents — likely ensuring she wasn’t deported to a Nazi concentration camp.