Stanley & Diana Steyer
This digital exhibition is the story of two individuals: Stanley Steyer and Diana Kintzel. Stanley was a young Jewish man in Poland who survived the Holocaust through ingenuity, luck, and the kindness of others. Diana was a young Polish Catholic woman who fell in love with Stanley, and supported him in his efforts to hide Jews in flight.
Broadly speaking, this exhibition also tells the story of Jewish life in Poland, a land that underwent dramatic changes over the course of the twentieth century. Stanley was born in a Poland that chafed under foreign rule, divided between the German, Austrian, and Russian empires. By the time Diana was born, following World War I, Poland had finally achieved its long-awaited independence. It promised equal rights to all its minorities.
To be sure, Jewish political, religious, and cultural life flourished in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s. Yet antisemitism (hatred of Jews) also increased, both in popular form and through state structures and policies. Polish fascism was born in this period, even before the invasion of Nazi forces on September 1, 1939.
World War II devastated Poland and its Jewish population. 90% of Poland’s Jews were killed in the Holocaust – by bullet in mass shootings; in ghettos, areas of a city designated for exclusively Jewish residence; and in death camps.
Stanley’s entire immediate family was killed in the Holocaust. In 1944, Stanley and Diana were imprisoned, beaten, and tortured, during which time Diana had a miscarriage. The loss continued after the war when their first child, Krzysztof, died tragically at the age of three months. In 1947, Stanley, Diana, and a second child, Thomas, immigrated to the United States. A daughter, Helen, was born, and shortly after, the family moved to Venezuela.
This digital exhibition is the story of two individuals: Stanley Steyer and Diana Kintzel. Stanley was a young Jewish man in Poland who survived the Holocaust through ingenuity, luck, and the kindness of others. Diana was a young Polish Catholic woman who fell in love with Stanley, and supported him in his efforts to hide Jews in flight.
Broadly speaking, this exhibition also tells the story of Jewish life in Poland, a land that underwent dramatic changes over the course of the twentieth century. Stanley was born in a Poland that chafed under foreign rule, divided between the German, Austrian, and Russian empires. By the time Diana was born, following World War I, Poland had finally achieved its long-awaited independence. It promised equal rights to all its minorities.