Maud Stecklmacher Beer Family History

Descendants of ~~~ Husserl & Theresa ~~~

Maud Stecklmacher Beer's earliest recorded Husserl ancestor is her great-great-grandmother Theresa, wife of ~~~ Husserl, Theresa was born in Prostejov, and the mother of five children; Charlotte [Lotte] Husserl (1845), Wilhelm Husserl  (ca 1850), Jakob Husserl (ca 1851), Heinrich Husserl (1854) and Max Husserl (ca 1860). Charlotte remained in Prostejov, where she died in 1916, while all four of her brothers moved to Vienna, three of them - Jacob, Wilhelm and Heinrich - becoming owners of the store Brothers Husserl in the Austrian capital.

Charlotte Husserl married Jacob Steiner, with whom she had five children; Max Steiner (1872), Gisela Steiner (1873), Regina Steiner (1874), Edmund Steiner (1878) and Josef Steiner (1884). First-born Max wed Stephanie [Steffi] Steiner (no relation) and had a daughter, Käthe Steiner (1908). Käthe in turn married Fritz Stecklmacher and had two daughters, Maud Stecklmacher (1929) and Karmela Stecklmacher (1934). For Käthe the Holocaust was a devastating experience. She, her husband and their two daughters were deported to Theresienstadt, at which camp Fritz died. Eight months earlier, her father Max had also been a Theresienstadt victim. Her mother Stephanie lost her life at Auschwitz in October 1944.

Following liberation from Theresienstadt Käthe, Maud and Karmela returned to Prostejov in 1945. Four years later, in 1949, they emigrated to Israel. Maud married Shimon [Oskar] Beer who, aged 14, had gone to Israel in December 1939 on the last children's transport before the borders were closed. The couple had three children, Ednah Beer (1953), Hanan Beer (1954) and Yael (1962). Sister Karmela married Jakob Weiss and had a son Ran Weiss [Ben Dom] and daughter Naomi Weiss [Ben Dom].

Gisela, the second of Charlotte Husserl's children was only 19 when she died. Her third, Regina, married Sandor Loschitzer and had a son, Ludwig Loschitzer who was born (date unknown) and died in Vienna (1961).

Fourth-born Edmund was head of head of a devastatingly tragic arm of this family. He, his wife Lilly Hamburger, daughter Lizzi Steiner (1911) and son Paul Steiner (1919) were all killed in the Holocaust.

Josef, the youngest of the five siblings married Mela Sborowitz with whom he had a son, Gustav Steiner (1925). Mela died in 1932 when Gustav was only seven years old. Ten years later he and his father were yet two more members of Charlotte's family to lose their lives in the Holocaust.

Wilhelm Husserl, the eldest of Charlotte's brothers married Henriette Stein and had two children, Marcel Husserl (c1890) and Felix (date unknown-1937). Marcel and his wife Rosa Weiss (1890) were both murdered at Zasavica in Yugoslavia. They had two daughters, Alice Husserl (1916) and Helene Wilhelmine Husserl (1922).

Jakob Husserl, second eldest of Charlotte's brothers, married Theresia Farber, with whom he had a daughter, Käthe Husserl (c1884) and son, Emil (c1885). Käthe married Hans Zerkowitz who died about 1925. Their son, George Zerkowitz was born in 1905. Käthe became another Holocaust victim. Her brother Emil married Lina ~~~ and died in his 80s in Vienna..

Charlotte's third brother Heinrich Husserl married Caroline Kohn. The couple had three children, Natalie Husserl (1891), Walter Heinrich Husserl (1892) and Theresia Husserl (1901). Their eldest, Natalie, had been deported to Kielce along with her husband Max Meth (c1878), son Heinz Josef Meth (1923) and daughter Ilse (1926). Most inhabitants of the Kielce ghetto were sent to Treblinka in 1942. Her brother Walter married Mimi Bries (1899) and had a son, Heinrich P Husserl. They emigrated to the U.S. where Heinrich, who subsequently Americanised his name to Henry P Husserl,  met and married Priscilla Priest (1901).

Theresia, the youngest of Heinrich Husserl's three children, married Friedrich Katz. The couple had a son, Carl Katz before the family changed its name to Stark and moved to Colombia, in which country their second son, Henry Joe Stark was born (1941). Carl Katz [Stark] married (wife's name unknown) and had three children, Carl Albert Stark (1955) and, following a move to New York, daughters Mary Claire Stark (1957) and Luisa Elena Stark (1962).

Youngest brother Max Husserl married Klementine [Klemi] Ziegler and the couple had a daughter Else Husserl (c1890), whose husband was named ~~~ Vertecz, and a son Helmut Husserl (c1895) who, with wife Hedy ~~~, moved to South Africa after 1939.

Holocaust survivor Maud has special thoughts and memories of the period when her life changed forever.

"Our whole Prossnitzer family were deported with the same transport on 2 July 1942 from Prostejov, which arrived 4 July 1942 in Theresientadt.

"We did not take leave neither from Edmund and his family nor from Josef and my good childhood friend Gusta. In 1942 the transports were despatched from Theresienstadt to Poland so quickly, people just disappeared."

Among her reminiscences are special thoughts and memories of Klementine, sister-in-law of her great-grandmother Charlotte Husserl. In her own words, she says:

"Tante Klemi was from Wien and we met in Theresienstadt. A very old tiny woman, we met her sometimes on the streets of the ghetto. My mother introduced us to her. My sister was about nine years old, I was 14.

"Tante Klemi was surely at least as hungry as we all were. She gave to my sister and to me, every time when we met, a bit of a brownish powder which she called Coca Cola. We never heard this name before (I learned to drink Coca Cola with my grandchildren in the Eighties). Klemi got it probably in a food parcel, or brought it with her from Wien. There was always a bit of it with her, in her pocket maybe...

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