Steinberg is a symbol of the Soviet crime committed against Jewish officers in Katyn. He was born in the small town of Przemyślany in Gniła Lipa (today’s Ukraine). After Poland regained independence in 1918, he provided religious guidance for Jewish soldiers in the Polish army. In the 1930s, he was the chief rabbi of the Polish army.
He was born to an orthodox family – his three brothers also became rabbis. However, feeling strong Polish patriotism, when the Polish state did not exist officially, he joined the Polish Military Organization in his hometown, and a year later he fought with the Ukrainians. After returning from the front, he became a student of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius.
His career in the Polish Army began in 1928 in Grodno, then he was transferred to Warsaw. In the capital, his career accelerated; in 1933 he was appointed the head of the Main Mosaic Pastoral Office, and in 1935-1939 he headed the Main Military Pastoral Mosaic Office of Non-Catholic Denominations of the Ministry of Military Affairs. In 1936, he was nominated the chief rabbi of the Polish Army, which was the crowning achievement of his career.
When World War II broke out, on September 2, 1939, the Polish-language Jewish daily “Nasz Przegląd”, published a fiery appeal of the Board and the General Council of the Union of Rabbis of the Republic of Poland, led by Steinberg, to the Jews, calling to fight and defend Poland.: “In an evil, despicable way, the eternal enemy has attacked our dearly, beloved Fatherland: Poland. Literally bereft of reverence, faith, and all other human feelings, he brings murder, robbery and conflagration. We Jews, the children of this land since time immemorial, we are all standing in disciplined line, serried and composed to the call of the President of Rzeczpospolita and Commander in Chief to defend our beloved Fatherland, each of us on a post designated by him, and we will give, when such need arises, on the altar of the Fatherland, our lives and our property.”
During the September campaign, Major Steinberg was the head of the Non-Catholic Confessions Chaplaincy for the “Kraków” Army. When Poland was attacked by the Soviets, he was taken prisoner and confined in the Starobelsk camp. There, on December 24, 1939, that is on Christmas Eve, together with the clergy of other religions, he was transported to a prison in Butyrki in Moscow, then he was sent to Juchnów and Kozielsk, from where on April 12, 1940, he was transported to Katyn and murdered there.
During the exhumation, a bunch of keys to his house and his glasses were found. Today they are in the Katyn Museum in Warsaw.