July 22nd, 1937, was Esther Steinberg's big day. Her wedding to Vogtseck Gluck, a goldsmith from Antwerp, was a smart affair at the Greenville Synagogue just a short walk from her home on the South Circular Road in Dublin. The men, pillars of Dublin's Jewish community, wore top hats, while the ladies were decked in their finery.
Ettie, as she was known, was just 22, a good-looking girl about to embark on the excitement and happiness of a new life. After the celebrations ended she set out for Belgium on a journey that was to make her part of the most horrific event the world had known. A little over five years later she, her husband and their three-year-old son, Leon, were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Today, the 56th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet army, is being marked by many countries throughout Europe as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ireland is not one of them.
Ettie Steinberg and Leon were Irish citizens. They were the two representatives of this State among the six million European Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust. Their story is worth greater recognition.
Vogtseck Gluck appears to have feared the developments in Germany at an early stage. Belgium was a small country, almost defenceless against German military might, so he moved to France. Their son was born on March 28th, 1939, in Paris.
Trapped in occupied France, the family's horrible fate became inevitable. The records show that they were arrested on September 2nd, 1942, sent to the notorious transit camp at Le Bourget-Drancy and onwards on the "27th Rail Transport of Jews" to Auschwitz. They show, too, that all those who arrived on that transport, more than 1,100 men, women and children, were taken to the gas chambers and murdered on arrival on September 4th.
Vogtseck, Ettie and Leon would have had some indication of the awful fate that awaited them. Back in Dublin the Steinberg family would have been worried. Ettie's father, Rabbi Aaron Steinberg, would have been in touch with Jewish communities elsewhere and would have been aware of their concerns. Letters were, however, exchanged between the Steinbergs in Dublin and Ettie in France. The last one, from her brother, now rests at the Irish-Jewish museum in Walworth Road, off the South Circular Road.
It was sent to Ettie by her brother and opened by the Irish censors before being sent on to France. There it was marked geoffnet (opened) by the German censors and returned to Ireland where it was opened again by the Irish censors. Written in a neat hand across the envelope are the ominous words parti sans laisser d'adresse (departed without leaving an address).
Today, as political leaders throughout Europe gather to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, there will be no formal recognition of Ettie Steinberg's fate by her own country. Ireland did take part last year at an International Holocaust Forum in Stockholm and committed itself to educate people on the horrors of genocide. While many countries sent high-level delegations including presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers, this State was represented by its ambassador to Sweden.
In contrast to Jewish response to the Famine in Ireland, Irish response to the Holocaust has been less than honourable. An Irish Famine Loan of £8 million was negotiated in London by Baron Lionel de Rothschild, who waived all commission.
The first organised appeal for aid in the United States was issued on February 12th by the Jewish banker August Belmont, and three weeks later the Shearith Israel Synagogue in Crosby Street, New York, raised funds "to take measures for the relief of the famishing thousands of their fellow mortals in that unfortunate and destitute country, Ireland". Other synagogues and communities followed suit.
On October 9th, 1938, the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Isaac Herzog, wrote to the Taoiseach, Mr Eamon de Valera, requesting the admission of six or seven Jewish refugee doctors and dentists.
The request was refused.
