In the fall of 1941, the Romanians deported the Steinbock family from Czernowitz to Transnistria. In March 1942, the mother, Fanny and her married daughter, Anna succumbed to typhus within three weeks of one another in Lozove, and were buried in a mass grave in Shargorod. Fanny's husband, Nahum Steinbock, and their daughters, Sally and Frida, survived in Transnistria. Their son David survived in Bucharest. Anna's husband survived in the ranks of the Red Army.
The names Fanny Steinbock and Anna Gelles are documented in the Book of Names, two of the 4,800,000 names of Holocaust victims that have been collected by Yad Vashem and are commemorated in this monumental installation. This is their story.
Nahum-Norbert Steinbock and Fanny née Picker were married in 1910 in Czernowitz, Bukovina (the Austro-Hungarian Empire, later Romania, today Ukraine). Their son David was born in 1911, followed two years later by their daughter Anna-Chanaleh. In World War I, Nahum was drafted to the Austro-Hungarian Army. Czernowitz was occupied by the Russians and the Austrians respectively, and Fanny was left alone with the children. She made a living cooking for others and selling items she knitted. After a while, she left the house together with the children, and reached a town in Moravia (in the west of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, later Czechoslovakia), near the army camp where Nahum was serving. Nahum organized an apartment for them and supported them on his military salary.
After the war, Nahum was released from the army, and returned to Czernowitz with Fanny and the children. There, they had two more daughters – Sally-Sarah (b. 1919) and Frida (b. 1927). Nahum made a living as a shoemaker, and his workshop was at the front of their apartment. Fanny helped support the family, as did the children after completing elementary school at age 12. Anna learned sewing and embroidery. David enlisted in the Romanian Army, and moved to Bucharest after the completion of his military service. The family maintained a traditional Jewish lifestyle and was Zionist in outlook. The children were members of "Gordonia" and Nahum was active in the General Zionists. "I remember Father," recalls Frida, "going out in the evening, whatever the weather: in the rain, storm, snow and cold, if there was a meeting." In 1937, Nahum received a "Certificate", an entry permit to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine). The family found it too difficult to meet the expenses of the journey, and Nahum gave the Certificate to another family and remained with his wife and children in Czernowitz.
In June 1940, the USSR annexed Czernowitz. The Soviets closed the stores and factories that were privately owned, confiscated merchandise, nationalized private property and banned Hebrew educational and cultural activity. Some 10,000 Jews – those who were well-off, Zionists, Bundists and others, were exiled to Siberia. Nahum's shoemaking workshop flourished, and his clientele included many Russian officers and soldiers. In July, 1940, Anna, their firstborn daughter, got married to her boyfriend of 13 years, Itzik Gelles. The wedding took place in the groom's home.
On 22 June1941, the Germans and the Romanians invaded the Soviet Union. The Soviets retreated from Czernowitz and recruited thousands of young Jewish men to the Red Army. Among the recruits was Itzik Gelles, Anna's husband, and she returned to her parents' home. On 5 July, the Romanians took control of Czernowitz, and persecution of the Jews ensued immediately. Romanian Army and police units together with locals, particularly Ukrainians, started to loot Jewish homes and stores, and went on a raping and murdering rampage. Anti-Jewish decrees were issued in late July: the wearing of the Yellow Star, restrictions on movement, prohibitions on congregating, discrimination in food distribution, and seizure for forced labor in the ranks of the Romanian Army. In August, anti-Jewish measures were intensified, and in September 1941, most of the Jews' property was confiscated.
In October 1941, the Romanians decided to deport the Jews of Czernowitz to Transnistria. Prior to deportation, they confined them in a sealed ghetto. Frida relates:
One fine day, they notified us that the same day, all the Jews of Czernowitz had to gather and move to the ghetto… What does one take? First and foremost, my parents collected family photographs and tied them to me… We packed a few clothes…. and we went to Father's aunt's house, which was within the territory designated for the ghetto. We crowded into her house, all the relatives. The ghetto was sealed, and Romanian soldiers stood guard over us… The conditions were harsh… We slept in terribly cramped quarters. There wasn't room for everyone to sleep. We slept on the floor. We lived in poverty. We were hungry.
In return for payment to the authorities, Anna's husband's family remained in Czernowitz outside the ghetto walls, and offered Anna to join them. Anna refused to part from her parents and sisters. She hoped that after they were sent to Ukraine, she would be able to see her husband.
On 13 October 1941, the deportation of Jews from Czernowitz to Transnistria began. Some 2,000 Jews were deported daily. The last deportation left on 15 November. Among the deportees in those weeks were Nahum, Fanny, their daughters and other relatives. Frida recalls:
The cars were cattle cars… We cried. We were very worried about Mother. Mother was an elderly woman. Her legs were swollen. There was nowhere to sit. It was crowded and awful… They treated us like animals… It was a very cold winter, which made things much harder for us… We reached the Ukrainian border, they forced us out of the trains and locals fell on us and tried to snatch what we had brought… We crossed the Dniester river on boats... We reached Mogilev [Mogilev-Podolski]. At first they moved us to an empty, ransacked barracks… Romanian soldiers kept guard over us so that we wouldn't escape.
Nahum bribed one of the soldiers, and he and his family left the barracks and managed to obtain a room for the night with a local woman, in return for payment. The next day, they joined relatives who had rented an apartment in Mogilev. After a few weeks, they were evacuated from Mogilev and marched on foot together with other Jews, under Romanian military guard. Frida relates:
The ground was covered in snow. At night we slept in empty cowsheds and stables. The Romanian soldiers kept us moving and threatened us with weapons… Father and I took the heavy things. We worried about Mother and my sister Anna, who were sick and frail, and had trouble walking… After three days, the soldiers abandoned us near Lozove.
Frida marked her 15th birthday in Lozove. She recalls:
On 16 January [1942], my older sister Anna called me and said, "Fridika, today is your birthday. I don't have a big present, but I have a letter for you that I wrote." She kissed and hugged me, and told me that she loves me very much. She wrote:
Today, your birthday returns for the 15th time, in the midst of many freezing cold days. But Fridel, don't be discouraged. Your days will yet be bright and colorful, and then you will remember with joy and pride what you went through in your life, and you'll remember that you were able to endure it. Affectionate wishes, your sister Anna.
A typhus epidemic broke out in Lozove. Fanny contracted typhus, as did Anna. There were no resources there to save them, and their condition deteriorated with each passing day. Anna died in Frida's arms on 3 March 1942. Three weeks later, her mother Fanny also died. The two women were buried in a mass grave in Shargorod. Devastated, Nahum, Sally and Frida remained in Lozove, fighting a daily battle against starvation, cold, lice and shortages. Frida recalls:
It consumed us, the hunger. At night, we would sit, and think and talk solely about the food we had once eaten, and the aromas would haunt us… The hunger was gnawing… I remember that my most pleasant dreams were about the food we used to eat at home. The hunger caused terrible suffering and misery.
In April 1944, Nahum, Sally and Frida were liberated by the Red Army, and returned to Czernowitz six months later. Nahum remarried and Frida resumed her studies at a Russian school. In 1946 Nahum, his second wife, Berta, Sally and Frida moved to Bucharest. There, Frida joined a Hachshara (pioneer training) kibbutz affiliated with the Dror Habonim movement. There, she met Yitzhak Braunstein, born in Iasi, Romania, and they got married. In November 1946, the Hachshara members boarded the Ma'apilim ship "Knesset Israel" bound for Eretz Israel. The ship was intercepted by the British, and its passengers, including Frida and Yitzhak, were brought to a detention camp in Cyprus. Nine months later, Frida and Yitzhak reached Eretz Israel and settled in Kibbutz Givat Brenner. In 1950, Nahum, Bertha and Sally immigrated to Israel and settled in Hadera. David immigrated in 1967.
In 1955, Frida Braunstein submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of her mother Fanny, her sister Anna and other relatives. In 2017, photos and documents shedding light on the fate of the Steinbock family during the Holocaust were donated to Yad Vashem as part of the "Gathering the Fragments" national project, some of which are displayed here.
![David Steinbock, his sister Anna (from right), and a fellow "Gordonia" member. Czernowitz, Romania, 1928](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/04_403.jpg "David Steinbock, his sister Anna (from right), and a fellow "Gordonia" member. Czernowitz, Romania, 1928")
