Gertrud Steinl, the last living German honored by Yad Vashem—the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem—for saving Jews during the years of World War II and the Holocaust, died on March 22 on the eve of her 98th birthday.
A Sudeten German, Steinl was recognized in 1979 as Righteous Among the Nations, Israel’s highest honor given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
According to the Yad Vashem website, Steinl was working as an overseer in the Polish town of Stryj during the war when a worker, Sarah Shlomi, revealed to her that she was Jewish, reported The Associated Press.
Steinl sent Shlomi (nee Froehlich) to live with her parents, ensuring that the latter would not be deported to a Nazi concentration camp. Shlomi survived the war.