Anna Stein was married to Alfred Stein, who had a wine business in Vienna and was persecuted as a Jew after the annexation of Austria to the Nazi German Reich. After her husband had died of an illness in September 1938, she inherited his extensive private possessions, including jewellery and artworks. As she supported prominent Jews with money and food and put them up in her apartment at Walfischgasse 6 in the 1st district, she was investigated and registered by the Gestapo in October 1942 and interned at the police prison in Rossauerlände from November 1942. In early 1943 she was transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp and was liberated from there by the Red Army on 28 April 1945. After her arrest, Andreas Veitschberger was appointed administrator of her assets. He kept some of the valuables for himself and his wife Anna Maria Veitschberger and sold the rest. One of the buyers was Ferdinand Spany, who claimed after 1945 to have paid a "fair price" for the objects and had "no influence on the pricing". Nevertheless, he agreed after Anna Stein's return from concentration camp internment during the Volksgericht case against Spany to return numerous objects, including jewellery, furniture and artworks secured during searches of Spany's apartment and offices to her. The Veitschbergers were also officially ordered on 7 December 1945 in the Volksgericht case against them to return valuables and household items to Anna Stein.