Decades after Amos Steinberg perished in Auschwitz with his mother, a note was discovered in his shoe • Museum workers were able to locate his surviving father's suitcase and close a circle
Ludwig Steinberg's suitcase
Photography:
Photo: Auschwitz Museum Birkenau
A note discovered inside a child's shoe at the Auschwitz Museum last summer led investigators to a suitcase that apparently belonged to his father.
In July, Auschwitz Museum staff found the name of Amos Steinberg written in a shoe.
Amos Steinberg was born in Prague in 1938 and perished in Auschwitz with his mother.
Last month, researchers were able to link the shoe to a suitcase from the museum's collection that belonged to Ludwig Steinberg, who they believe was Amos' father.
Ludwig Steinberg was sent to Auschwitz on a transport earlier than that of his wife and son.
He survived and immigrated to Israel, according to museum records.
Steinberg's name is written on the suitcase next to his transport number.
The museum said that his relatives in Israel provided additional information about him.
Steinberg immigrated to Israel in 1949 and changed his name to Yehuda Shenan.
He was a teacher and principal and worked as a cantor in several synagogues.
He died in 1985, leaving six grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
"I am grateful to the Steinberg family for the information they have given us and for strengthening our knowledge," said museum director Piotr Tsibinski.
"Thanks to this gesture, items associated with Auschwitz lose their anonymity - sometimes unbearably - and take on a deeper and more personal meaning. As an item of great documentary value, the shoe is proof of a specific person's suffering, and along with the thousands of other items we preserve at the Auschwitz memorial site. Birkenau is a testament to the Holocaust that took place. "
