Family Tree

Siegfried Steyer was a dashing businessman, who traveled across Europe and the United States in his youth. He married Salomea Waksberg, and the couple had two children, Stanley and Helena. Siegfried was deported from the Kielce ghetto in 1942 and most likely killed in the Treblinka death camp

Born to a large, traditional family in the Polish city of Kielce, Salomea Waksberg showed an early knack for business, working with her father in his leather goods store. In her early twenties, Salomea married Siegfried Steyer and assisted him in his business pursuits. The couple had two children, Stanley and Helena. Salomea was killed during the liquidation of the Kielce ghetto in 1942.

Originally from Warsaw, Józef was drawn to music and theater, training as an opera singer and working as a theater director and manager. Together with his wife, Władysława, Józef had three children: Krystyna, Tadeusz, and Danuta (Diana).

A classically trained pianist, Władysława Balwierz grew up in Warsaw at the turn of the twentieth century. In an era where women did not often have careers, she played the piano in theaters during silent film screenings. After marrying Józef Kintzel, an opera singer and stage director, she moved with him to Bydgoszcz, in northern Poland, where he had been appointed Director of the Municipal Theater. Later, they settled in the town of Zamość, in the southeast. The couple had three children: Krystyna, Tadeusz, and Danuta (Diana).

David Gdanski was a textile engineer from the industrial city of Lodz, Poland. He met and married Helena Steyer there, and they had a baby girl, Nina. The growing family spent the early war years in Kielce, Helena’s hometown, where David served as a Jewish policeman. Later, with the support of Helena’s brother and sister-in-law (Stanley and Diana), David, Helena and Nina went into hiding near Warsaw. They were betrayed in 1944 and shot by the Gestapo.

Helena Steyer, Stanley’s younger sister, was an aspiring journalist and talented artist. She married David Gdanski and gave birth to a girl, Nina, shortly after the war began. After escaping the liquidation of the Kielce ghetto, Helena, David and Nina went into hiding near Warsaw, with the help of Stanley and his wife Diana. They were betrayed in 1944 and shot.

Stanley Steyer survived the Holocaust under several false identities on the Aryan side of Warsaw. He used his business acuity to support himself and other Jews in hiding, and when he met and married Danuta (Diana) Kintzel, she assisted him in this dangerous work. Stanley and Diana immigrated to the United States and then to Venezuela. Their daughter, Helen Sarah, has donated their papers to the JFCS Holocaust Center.

Danuta (or Diana) risked her life to save Jews during the Holocaust. She worked together in this effort with her husband, Stanley Steyer. Danuta has yet to be recognized as one of the “righteous among the nations.”

Krystyna was the eldest child in the family of Diana Kintzel. Diana referred to her at times with the nickname of “Mama,” since Krystyna was ten years older than she was. Krystyna traveled to Warsaw for her sister’s wedding, despite the risk of traveling in wartime, and perhaps with the knowledge that Diana was marrying a Jewish man. If the wedding had been infiltrated by the Gestapo, Krystyna would undoubtedly have been imprisoned and killed.

The second child in the Kintzel family, Tadeusz was the older brother of Danuta (Diana). He bravely risked his life to assist Diana, and her husband Stanley Steyer, in hiding Jews on the Aryan side of Warsaw. He was about 29 years old at the time, and a chemical engineer by training. Tadeusz has yet to be recognized as one of the “righteous among the nations.”

The child of Helena and David, Nina was only two or three years old when she went into hiding with her parents in an apartment near Warsaw. In 1944, the family was betrayed by a Gestapo informant, and Nina was shot together with her parents.

The first son of Stanley and Diana, Krzysztof died as an infant at the age of three months. His mother kept his memory close for the rest of her life.

Helen Steyer is a noted Spanish-language specialist, translator and lecturer, and major philanthropist in both the San Francisco Bay area and in Israel. In her philanthropy, Helen carries on the tradition of her late father, Stanley Steyer. Helen recently donated the “Stanley and Diana Steyer collection” to the JFCS Holocaust Center, and she has generously funded this exhibit.

Now retired, Tommy grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, and was an accomplished businessman with over 40 years experience leading the family’s zipper manufacturing industry, as well as heading their real estate corporation. He has been a staunch supporter of Tel Aviv University and its Board of Governors for three decades. In 2012 Tommy received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University for his support in the fields of cancer research, health professions and scholarship aid, carrying on a tradition established by his late father, Stanley Steyer.