Fred and Lilo Stein
Fred Stein
Fred Stein was born on July 3, 1909 in Dresden, Germany. His father was a rabbi. He was a brilliant student, and as a teenager he was deeply involved in politics and became an early anti-Nazi activist. He went to Leipzig University to study law, but when the Nazis took over the government, he was denied admission to the German bar for “racial and political reasons.” Life in Dresden grew more and more dangerous, and after the Gestapo began making inquiries about him, Stein fled to Paris in 1933 with his new wife, Liselotte Salzburg, under the pretext of taking a honeymoon.
Lilo Stein
Liselotte Stein was born on June 22, 1910 into a prosperous Dresden family. Born Liselotte Salzburg, but known affectionately as Lilo, she was the youngest of the three daughters of Dr. Siegmund Salzburg, and his wife Elsa, neé Glückmann. Dr. Salzburg was an ear, nose, and throat doctor whose practice largely consisted of the nobility of the Court, including the King of Saxony, opera singers (who were the stars of the day), and a pro bono practice for poor families. Lilo lived a life of privilege in a wealthy upper-class German Jewish family whose underpinnings, however, were gradually collapsing following the First World War, due to changes in government and society.
Lilo emerged into young womanhood under the Weimar Republic. Fleeing the Nazis in 1933, and unable to follow the medical career to which she aspired, she devoted herself instead to providing unconditional support for the photographic career of her husband. She was a dauntless companion, and met all the hardships of their exile in Paris and in New York with cheerful resourcefulness and good humor. Her daughter Ruth-Marion was born in Paris in 1938, her son Peter in 1943 in New York.
During their time in New York, Lilo Stein made an essential contribution to the family income through her work: in the textile industry, and in photographic laboratories. Later, she gained academic qualifications and was eventually appointed Professor of German Literature and Theatre Studies at Adelphi University in Garden City on Long Island, New York.
Lilo Stein died on November 28, 1997 in Queens, New York City.