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  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery
  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery

The Meaning of Survival

  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery
  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery

The Meaning of Survival


Confronting the Reality of Liberation

In 1944, Stanley and Diana made a business trip to the city of Tarnów, in southern Poland, to deliver coffee products.  The Gestapo was now on the hunt for Stanisław Sternikowski, and so Stanley adopted yet another false identity: his last name was now Krzemiński, to match Diana’s false name of Anna Krzemińska.   Upon entering a restaurant in Tarnów, Stanley and Diana were followed, and subsequently arrested at the train station.   They were detained in prison for a month, during which they were beaten and tortured.  Diana, who was pregnant with her first child, lost the baby by miscarriage.

Document certifying Diana's release from prison. Diana is referred to by her false name of Anna Krzemińska

All of Stanley's immediate family was killed in the Holocaust.

Among them, his younger sister Helena, brother-in-law Dawid, and niece Nina

Stanley and Diana were living near Kraków, with relatives of Diana, when Soviet troops liberated the city in January, 1945.  Still reeling from the loss of their unborn child, Stanley and Diana emerged from the war to confront a tremendous reality of loss.  Stanley’s entire immediate family had been killed.  His mother, Salomea, was murdered during the Nazi liquidation of the Kielce ghetto.  Stanley’s father, Siegfried, was deported from Kielce and most likely was murdered in Treblinka, a death camp.  Stanley had found a hiding place near Warsaw for his sister Helena, together with her husband David and baby Nina.  In 1944, Helena, David and Nina were betrayed to the Gestapo, arrested, and shot.

Stanley and Diana journeyed from Warsaw to Tarnów, where they were arrested and imprisoned

Portrait of Nina Gdanski

Stanley's niece, Nina. Killed by the Nazis at age 3.

Stanley's sister, Helena Steyer. Helena was arrested and shot, together with her family, in 1944.

A Wedding in Wartime

Epilogue

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  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery
  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery
  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery
  • Introduction
  • Stanley & Diana Steyer
    • Steyer Family Heritage
    • Becoming a Businessman
    • Hiding in Plain Sight
    • A Wedding in Wartime
    • The Meaning of Survival
    • Epilogue
  • Timeline
  • Family Tree
  • Photo Gallery

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