This contribution contains many names, but that is precisely the intention, because in these days of commemoration of the victims of the Second World War and National Socialism, these are the names of people who we should not forget. These are the names of Settela and her family. Settela is the Limburg girl who regained her true name and origin many years after her death, thanks to a long search by journalist Aad Wagenaar. He discovered that she was not a Jewess, as was long assumed, but a Sinti. This story is mainly about the terrible fate of Heinrich and Emilia Steinbach, her parents.
Out of respect, I also give them and their children, as far as possible, their Sinti names Heinrich (Moeselman) and Emilia (Toetela) Steinbach. They had ten children. Maria Gertruda (Mokkela), born in Brunssum in 1922. Willem-Hendrik (Messelo, also called Elmo), born in Brunssum in 1925. Elisabeth, born in Meerssen in 1926. Celestinus (Willy), born in Heerlen in 1929. Johanna Cornelia, born in Maastricht in 1930. Philibert, born in 1932 in Geleen. Anna Maria (Blieta, also called Settela), born in 1934 in Buchten. Florentina Maria (Sonja), born in 1937 in Sittard. Willem, born in 1939 in Sittard. And a second Anna Maria (Doosje), born in Linne in 1942.
Also read:Settela from Buchten, who was gassed in Auschwitz, gets a place in the renewed Canon of Limburg, Toon Hermans does not
Westerbork
During the gypsy raid of May 16, 1944, the wife and all children of Heinrich Steinbach were deported from the Sinti and Roma collection camp in Eindhoven to Westerbork camp. Heinrich and his brothers Wilhelmus and Henrik had already been arrested and imprisoned in Amersfoort concentration camp. Later, Heinrich and his brothers were transferred to Westerbork, where Heinrich learned that a few days earlier his wife and all his children had been transported to Auschwitz. They were murdered there, but he didn’t know that at the time.
But Heinrich and his brothers were not sent to Auschwitz, because the Philips factories, which worked for the Germans, urgently needed workers. They were put to work in Eindhoven.
Crazy with sadness
Immediately after the liberation of Eindhoven on September 17, 1944, Heinrich went looking for his wife and children. Heinrich searched for his family through various agencies, such as the Red Cross. On May 22, 1946, Heinrich still worked with the communist newspaper The truth and the CPN (the important role that the Communist Party played in the resistance is often forgotten) made a last attempt in Maastricht to find out more about his family who had been deported from Westerbork. Two weeks later, mad with grief, he died in a caravan at a camp on the Gerardusweg in Maastricht, at the age of 44.
Also read:Settela Steinbach, the girl who was transported
Emilia’s sister, Theresia, who was married to Wilhelmus, her husband Heinrich’s brother, was also murdered with her three children. A total of 26 people from the entire Steinbach family band from Limburg are in the gas chambers of Auschwitz
