Lucie Steindorff
1 April 1879 | Dessau – 12 May 1942 | Nazi euthanasia centre in Bernburg
Piano teacher
Lucie Steindorff was the youngest of five children of the merchant Louis Steindorff (1831–1919) and Helene, née Ehrmann (1840–1918). The Steindorff family lived on the corner of Richterstr. and Balzacstraße (formerly Richterstr. 2). Lucie’s brother Georg (1861–1951, California; Professor of Egyptology) is credited by the University of Leipzig with establishing the Egyptian Museum; Paul (1863–1927, California) was a musician and conductor; Else (1869–1945, Johannesburg) and Kurt (1875–1942, France), an ophthalmologist.
Little is known about Lucie Steindorff’s life. She received a musical education; in 1908 she graduated from the Royal Conservatoire in Leipzig and worked as a piano teacher from then on. On the morning of 13 January 1941, house searches were carried out at the homes of Jewish families in Leipzig. At that time, Lucie Steindorff was subletting a flat at 20 Grassistrasse. 500 marks were found at Lucie’s flat, which she had set aside for her emigration. She was arrested for a ‘foreign exchange offence’ and taken to the police prison in Wächterstraße. Lucie’s friend Martha Jolowicz wrote from exile in New York to Lucie’s brother Georg and his wife in California… stating, amongst other things:
New York, 5 May 1941…
“My dear friends … Cläre Homberger wrote to me on 13 March… Lucie is still in Wächterstraße, but yesterday Trixie Breslauer van Tijn said that Lucie is no longer there. … A telegram must have been sent to you, probably regarding the affidavit … Have you obtained one and sent it to the Berlin Consulate? A copy must be sent to Cläre Homberger, and at the same time a telegram must be sent to the ‘Jewish Aid Association’ at 10 Walter-Blümel-Straße, Leipzig – in which you state that the affidavit has been sent and that the passage to America has been paid for. …”
All efforts to bring Lucie to the USA failed. On 28 March 1941, she was deported to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp; from there, along with many other Jewish women, she was taken on 10 May 1942 in a ‘transport for the infirm’² to the Bernburg extermination centre/Nazi euthanasia centre, where she was murdered on the same day. The two women from Leipzig mentioned in the letter also perished in the Holocaust.
NOTE: *) Due to the format of the exhibition, the biographical details mentioned above had to be abridged. Visitors to the exhibition have the opportunity to read an expanded version of the biographical details in the exhibition folders provided. The entire, very extensive project includes further biographies, additional content and research … is in progress – also online…
->back to the overview of female artists”:/en/jewish-female-artists/