Endre Steiner

Andrew Steiner (22 August 1908 – 2 April 2009), also known as Endre, André, or Andrej Steiner, was a Czechoslovak-American architect who participated in Jewish resistance to the Holocaust as a member of the Bratislava Working Group, an underground Jewish organization. He played a major role in the negotiations with SS official Dieter Wisliceny to pay a ransom of $50,000 to the Nazi hierarchy which was one of the main reasons the Slovak transports to Auschwitz stopped in early 1942. Later, he negotiated a ransom payment to spare Jews from death in large parts of Europe as part of the Europa Plan. After the war, he settled in Atlanta, where he was notable for his architecture.

Life Steiner was born in a Jewish family in Dunaszerdahely, Austria-Hungary (present-day Dunajská Streda, Slovakia) and was educated at Hungarian-language schools in Eperjes (now Prešov, Slovakia) and Pozsony (Pressburg, today's Bratislava, Slovakia).

When the Slovak State declared independence in 1939, it began to persecute Jews. Eventually, Jews were forced to form a Judenrat, known as the Ústredňa Židov (ÚŽ), in order to implement Nazi orders. Steiner worked for the ÚŽ, helping set up labor camps for Jews in hopes that the Slovak authorities would not deport them. About 4,000 Jews were in the labor camps in 1942, when two-thirds of Slovak Jews were deported; most of those in labor camps were spared. Later, Steiner became part of the resistance movement within that body, known as the Bratislava Working Group. Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer described him as "non-ideological", in contrast to the Zionist and Orthodox figures in the Working Group. In 2004, Steiner received an honorary degree from Masaryk University in Brno. Slovak architect Ratislav Udžan wrote his PhD thesis on Steiner's life and work. A redesigned version of one of his kitchens won the Grand Prize for Kitchen of the Year in Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles.

Literature Abraham Fuchs, The Unheeded Cry (also in Hebrew as Karati ve ein oneh) (ArtScroll History, 1984) David Kranzler, Thy Brothers' Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. Brooklyn: Ktav Publishing House, 1987.

Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, Min HaMetzar (From the Straights), in Hebrew Architekt Endre Steiner: arbeiten aus den Jahren 1934–1939. Fr. Kalivoda Brünn 1939. 65 s.

WAHLA, Ivan, ed., PELČÁK, Petr, ed. a SAPÁK, Jan, ed. Brněnští židovští architekti = Brno's Jewish architects: 1919–1939. Brno: Spolek Obecní dům, 2000. 95 s. .

Documentaries Petr Bok and Martin Smok (VERAfilm, Prague and Czech Television), Among Blind Fools, a three-hour video documentary about the Bratislava Working Group, including interviews with Andre Steiner in Atlanta