Heinz Steinberg and his mother Rosa moved to Berlin-Schöneberg in 1940, after Jews had been banned from living in Emden in East Frisia. Heinz Steinberg, who had to perform forced labor, met the coal merchant Paula Bierdel around 1942; her husband was a soldier on the front. The two of them appear to have developed a relationship. When Steinberg was threatened with deportation at the beginning of 1943, Paula Bierdel took him in to her Schöneberg home and also provided him with food.
After a denunciation, the Gestapo arrested Heinz Steinberg at Paula Bierdel’s home at the end of September 1943, along with his mother Rosa, who happened to be present at the time. They were both deported to Auschwitz on October 14, 1943. Heinz Steinberg died in the camp prisoner infirmary on January 15, 1944, possibly of tuberculosis. His mother did not survive either.
In June 2017 Stolperstein cobbles were installed outside their former home at number 35 Ringstraße in Emden, commemorating Rosa Steinberg and her sons Heinz and Werner (1917-1993).