Hannah Steiner (27 April 1894 – 1944) was a Czech Zionist activist, humanitarian, and co-founder and first president of the Czech branch of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO).
After her marriage in 1920 to Ludwig Steiner, a secondary school teacher, Steiner settled in Prague.[2] She subsequently led the transformation of the Zionist Women’s and Girls' Club to co-found Czechoslovakia's branch of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) in 1925, and became its first president.[2][3][4] Her work with the Czech branch of WIZO earned her membership to the World WIZO organization.[1] At that time, her role chiefly revolved around education and vocational training.[1] From 1927 she also edited, with Miriam Scheuer, the periodical that she established, titled Blätter der Jüdischen Frau, a woman's supplement of the Jewish weekly Selbstwehr.[1][2]
Following Hitler's rise to power, Steiner's role increasingly focussed on German refugees.[1] With Marie Schmolka, she led programmes in refugee relief.[1] In December 1938, along with Schmolka and Martin Blake, she asked Nicholas Winton to hold off his skiing holiday in the Alps and visit Prague instead.[5] The Czech police helped the Gestapo arrest both Steiner and Schmolka in March 1939, and they were sent to Pankrác Prison, where they were tortured.[2][6] Having spent several months there, they were released following action by Františka Plamínková.[6]
Following the onset of the Second World War, when Schmolka was in Paris before moving to London, Steiner took over her roles at Prague.[6] As a result, Steiner was held answerable for Schmolka's escape from Nazi occupied Europe.[6]
Steiner was again arrested and sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto, along with her husband.[7] They were subsequently moved to Auschwitz where, in 1944, they were killed in the gas chambers.[2][7]
^ abcdefghBrade, Laura E. (2017). Networks of escape: Jewish flight from the Bohemian lands, 1938-1941. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina. pp. 85–86. A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History.
^Čapková, Kateřina (2012). "5. Zionists". Czechs, Germans, Jews?: National Identity and the Jews of Bohemia. Prague: Berghahn Books. pp. 235–237. ISBN978-0-85745-474-4.
