My Experience with Holocaust Survivor Benjamin Steiner

Noah Tetro interviewed Holocaust survivor Benjamin Steiner in 2015 as part of a school project. He was ten years old. Noah is now seventeen (January 2023) and about to embark on a conjoint global studies/arts degree at the University of Auckland. He is grandson of the late Roger Moses, a founding Trustee of Jewish Lives and the son of Marcus Tetro and Juliet Moses.

(Benjamin Steiner, Noah Tetro, Marcus Tetro)

By Noah Tetro

Growing up Jewish, I always had an interest in the Holocaust from a young age. This wasn’t solely out of partisanship however - I have always been an admirer of history, learning lessons from our ancestors and bygone eras. Therefore, in late 2015, an opportunity arose for me to incorporate my (rather primitive compared to now) knowledge of the Holocaust into something called exhibition day, where each student of year 6 made an exhibition demonstrating their accumulated knowledge over a topic they were passionate about. I chose the Holocaust without much hesitation, and I got to work creating my project with images, key facts, and explanations about an event that came to define modern society. 

In order for my young brain to comprehend the sheer volume and horror that had taken place between 1941-45, my father, Marcus, contacted somebody who he had met through his work at the Auckland Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish burial and benevolence society, Mr. Benjamin Steiner. He made an interesting proposal to me, that I interview Mr. Steiner to get a more authentic lens through which I viewed the events of the Holocaust. 

We first met Mr. Steiner in mid 2015, and we found him to be a soft spoken, delightful man who spoilt me and my brother with jellybeans and other treats. He also showed us several of his favorite artifacts like his menorah, and a beautiful saxophone that he used to play in an orchestra. He lived in a humble abode - a retirement village in Blockhouse Bay, however his home, full of beautiful jewellry, pottery, and other meaningful artifacts, felt extremely sentimental and significant.

My brother Isaac and myself took a great liking to Mr. Steiner, and on our way to school (usually once a week or so) we gave him a phone call which he greatly appreciated, right until his death in 2018. He sounded equally cheerful and eager to know what went on in our lives during each phone call, and we all enjoyed talking to him, as he lived by himself and we suspected he had some trouble occupying the excess time he had. We visited him occasionally, and every time he would go to great lengths to provide the best hospitality, putting his delightful character on full display. 

How did my experiences with Benjamin Steiner influence my understanding of the Holocaust?

Before I met Benjamin Steiner, I knew little about the horrific details of the Holocaust, only knowing that 6 million of my people were exterminated as a culmination of decades of harmful propaganda, hatred, and pogroms. Mr. Steiner was the first, and only person that I've met in person to offer an authentic lens on the Holocaust. Many aspects of Steiner, such as seeing his tattoo in person, something I had only seen pictures of on the internet, seemed so surreal and frightening, and was evidence to a 10 year old me of the destruction and harm that manufactured hatred can cause. Another aspect of his story that really changed my understanding of the Holocaust was the story he told me about Eva, his friend who he was transported with, from Hungary to Auschwitz. Eva wasn’t even Jewish. She was only taken because Ben held her hand when all the Jews were told to step forward for transportation at the Catholic orphanage he was hiding in. He dragged her forward, making the officers assume she too was Jewish. Eva was the only ray of hope for Ben in Auschwitz - as was Ben to Eva, however one morning, she didn’t wake him up like usual, and instead was transported out of the barracks, dead. This was something that completely changed my understanding of the Holocaust, as Eva was only 12 at the time of her death, near enough in age to me.

At that time, I wasn’t familiar with the plight of children during the Holocaust, but from that moment, I learnt children were just as susceptible as adults. That’s when the extent of the Holocaust hit me- children like myself, perhaps if I was unfortunate enough to be born in Europe during that era, could have been killed, for the crime of being Jewish. That was a frightening thought for my young mind, but something that Ben really helped me understand.

Overall, almost all of Benjamin’s story changed my perspective on the Holocaust through a common denominator, age. When I was the same age as Ben, he was being transported to an extermination camp, whilst I was sitting there interviewing him, putting things into perspective.

Ben also introduced me to the gruesome concept of human experimentation, as he was one of the people to have survived the stomach-churning experiments performed by the angel of death, Joseph Mengele, the sadistic Auschwitz doctor. This also taught me the extent of human cruelty, another valuable warning from Ben.

Antisemitism and attitudes toward the Holocaust amongst my peers

Going to school in New Zealand, perhaps the furthest place from where the Holocaust happened, the education on the Holocaust in school has been to an acceptable standard. My classmates and I were taught about it in a serious manner, and those who didn’t know much about it were extremely understanding and respectful toward the matter. Outside of the classroom however, it’s a whole different matter. Whilst I haven’t experienced much antisemitism with the sole intent of insulting or disrespecting me, what many call casual antisemitism is rife. This mainly comes in the form of jokes, and whilst I can take a touch of banter from my mates, when people who don’t know me start hurling abuse my way, this is when the situation gets worrying. This happened multiple times at my high school - where people, who were told by someone I was Jewish, send antisemitic sentiment my way, effectively disguised as jokes. I believe it is this casual antisemitism that is the root cause for the harmful propaganda said about our people.

Isaac, Marcus and Noah Tetro

We are amongst the most vulnerable people on earth today, and it’s a worrying trend when people I don’t even know come up to me and single me out for being Jewish. Insults such as “Jewish Goblin” or “Sieg Heil” truly expose a deep-rooted antisemitic problem in all aspects of society, and that children are indoctrinated with Jewish hatred from a young age. 

In the few years I was lucky enough to be acquainted with Mr. Benjamin Steiner, the lessons he taught me about the Holocaust and about life in general will stay with me forever. As a man who had gone through so much trauma, he was amongst the most mellow, humble men I have met in life, even with the great things he went on to achieve in life. I will always be grateful to have known him.