Object numberM2010/054:022
DescriptionWork reference for Leo Steiner. Dated 01-10-1938. Recommends Leo as a competent jeweller after his apprenticeship in Vienna. The letter is signed and stamped by the proprietor Oscar Fastlich, Jeweller and Goldsmith.
It states: Leo Steiner has trained as a jewellery maker between 1.10.1932 and 1.10.1936. He was conscientious and responsible and made an effort to improve his knowledge of the trade. He was always good friends with the rest of the staff and is honest beyond a doubt. He has to be discharged now due to a shortage of work. I can recommend him with the highest degree.
Part of a collection of letters, Red Cross messages and photographs donated by Betty Steiner (nee Walsch), relating to her husband Leo Steiner (1918-1996). Leo was apprenticed to a jeweller in Vienna; his boss wrote to the Hardy Bros in Australia who sent him a permit at the age of 18 to come to Australia. Leo obtained a visa and went to Switzerland until the permit for Australia arrived in 1938. He commenced work with Hardy Bros, a company that manufactured jewellery for the Queen. He worked for them until the outbreak of war; he then found a job with a factory making aircraft tools. Betty met Leo when she was 15. They married on 21 December 1941 when she turned 18. Leo wrote numerous letters to the Australian Government pleading for permits for his parents, Adolf and Hermine Steiner, and brother Paul to come to Australia, but his applications were denied. Leo's mother was the daughter of Ludwig Klinger and Marie Freud and her sister was Anna Seifter. Anna and her husband Abraham survived Ferramonti-Tarsia internment camp in Italy and moved to America after the war.
Leo's father, Adolf, had served in the Austrian Army during WWI. In September 1940, the Germans in Vienna ordered all the Jewish males to assemble in the street on a cold winter's night and run until they were overheated. They were hosed down with cold water. Adolf caught pneumonia and died on 23 September 1940. One of the letters in the collection from Leo's mother informs him of his father's death. By 1995, Leo was still trying to find out what happened to his mother. A reply from the Red Cross received in 2000, four years after Leo's death, states that Hermine Steiner's last known residence was in Vienna and that she was evacuated to Minsk by the 'Geheime Statspolizei Wien' with Transport 26 on 9 June 1942. Thus, he died never knowing what happened to his mother.
Leo's brother Paul escaped by swimming across the Danube from Vienna to Belgrade. He was captured and sent to Sabac Camp in Yugoslavia. On 15 November 1940, he married a woman named Edith. They had a child named Ruth in the camp. Several telegrams to Leo from his mother concern the well-being of Paul, Edith and the baby, later expressing concern when she stops hearing from them. The Australian and European Search Bureau of the Association of New Citizens enquiring on his behalf about the fate of Paul determined that he probably fell victim to fascist occupation forces during the mass shooting of Jews in Zasavica, Macva.
It states: Leo Steiner has trained as a jewellery maker between 1.10.1932 and 1.10.1936. He was conscientious and responsible and made an effort to improve his knowledge of the trade. He was always good friends with the rest of the staff and is honest beyond a doubt. He has to be discharged now due to a shortage of work. I can recommend him with the highest degree.
Part of a collection of letters, Red Cross messages and photographs donated by Betty Steiner (nee Walsch), relating to her husband Leo Steiner (1918-1996). Leo was apprenticed to a jeweller in Vienna; his boss wrote to the Hardy Bros in Australia who sent him a permit at the age of 18 to come to Australia. Leo obtained a visa and went to Switzerland until the permit for Australia arrived in 1938. He commenced work with Hardy Bros, a company that manufactured jewellery for the Queen. He worked for them until the outbreak of war; he then found a job with a factory making aircraft tools. Betty met Leo when she was 15. They married on 21 December 1941 when she turned 18. Leo wrote numerous letters to the Australian Government pleading for permits for his parents, Adolf and Hermine Steiner, and brother Paul to come to Australia, but his applications were denied. Leo's mother was the daughter of Ludwig Klinger and Marie Freud and her sister was Anna Seifter. Anna and her husband Abraham survived Ferramonti-Tarsia internment camp in Italy and moved to America after the war.
Leo's father, Adolf, had served in the Austrian Army during WWI. In September 1940, the Germans in Vienna ordered all the Jewish males to assemble in the street on a cold winter's night and run until they were overheated. They were hosed down with cold water. Adolf caught pneumonia and died on 23 September 1940. One of the letters in the collection from Leo's mother informs him of his father's death. By 1995, Leo was still trying to find out what happened to his mother. A reply from the Red Cross received in 2000, four years after Leo's death, states that Hermine Steiner's last known residence was in Vienna and that she was evacuated to Minsk by the 'Geheime Statspolizei Wien' with Transport 26 on 9 June 1942. Thus, he died never knowing what happened to his mother.
Leo's brother Paul escaped by swimming across the Danube from Vienna to Belgrade. He was captured and sent to Sabac Camp in Yugoslavia. On 15 November 1940, he married a woman named Edith. They had a child named Ruth in the camp. Several telegrams to Leo from his mother concern the well-being of Paul, Edith and the baby, later expressing concern when she stops hearing from them. The Australian and European Search Bureau of the Association of New Citizens enquiring on his behalf about the fate of Paul determined that he probably fell victim to fascist occupation forces during the mass shooting of Jews in Zasavica, Macva.
Production date 1938
Subjectadaptation, establishing new life
Object namereferences
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 225.00 mm
height: 293.00 mm
Language
- German
It is typed on stationary printed with the following letter head:
OSCAR FASTLICH
ERZEUGUNG FEINER JUWELEN
SPEZIALITAT ARMBANDER UND ARMBAND-UHREN IN PLATIN
EXPORT
KORRESPONDENZ: ENGLISH . FRANCAIS . ESPANOL . DEUTSCH
WIEN
I WEIHBURGGASSE 4
TELEPHON: R-25-8-68
Wien, 26. March 1938
ZEUGINS.
Mr Leo Steiner has trained as a jewellery maker between 1.10.1932 and 1.10.1936. he was conscientious and responsible and made an effort to improve his knowledge of the trade. He was always good friends with the rest of the staff and is honest beyond a doubt. He has to be discharged now due to a shortage of work. I can recommend him with the highest degree.
Oscar Fastlich
Jeweller and Goldsmith
Vienna l., Weihburggasse 4
Telephone R 25-8-68
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Betty Steiner