Escaping Germany (Title is still a work in progress)

Many Jews have recounted their stories revolving around the Holocaust and how they were placed into ghettos or concentration camps. My grandparents on my father’s side were both concentration camp survivors, one survived Dachau the other Auschwitz, my grandmother on my mother’s side was able to escape Germany before being placed into a concentration camp. Not many individuals know about the Jews who escaped from the country, especially at a young age, while the rest of their families were not as lucky. This story not only needs to be told for my grandmother, but for everyone.

“Are you okay with your classmates knowing you are Jewish?”

This was the question my grandmother posed to me during this project. Not only did she survive Hitler’s rule, but she is still living to talk about it. Even to this day she would not want to be anything other than Jewish, but she still wonders about the Antisemitism I may face.

Helene Spiegel was born in Herne, Germany on February 15, 1922. Later moving to Dortmund, Germany with her parents Mathes and Charlotte and brother Oscar. The Spiegel’s were an Orthodox Jewish family who kept kosher and believed that academics were top priority. Mathes (Matthew) and Charlotte believed that academics were top priority for their children. Middle school was not free in Germany, so Helene’s parents saved money to send both their children to school to receive a good education. Both Helene’s parents worked in the store, which helped put through children through school. Their store sold shoes, then canned goods, which was a new item during this time in Germany. They also owned a chicken and egg store and pawn shop, which either came before or after the canned goods store, but Helene cannot remember which came first.

Helene’s birth certificate from Germany. Geburtasukunde means birth certificate in German.

The Nazis started tagging all of the Jewish owned stores with signs saying “Jude,” so that customers and everyone in town would know that a Jew owned the store. The sign in Mathes and Charlotte’s store was taken down by German citizens who were not Jews or Nazis.

When antisemitism starting rising, schooling became harder to attend for Helene. While still in Grammar school, Helene was switched from public school and sent to a private Jewish school, so she would not have to face discrimination. Moving schools was a decision that was never regretted, all the students and teachers at her new school were all Jewish and going through the same discrimination Helene was.

Helene as a young child with her schoolbag.

One Sunday while still in middle school Mathes took Helene swimming for the first time, previously she had no experience swimming in a pool.

From then on Helene kept swimming and in 1932 at the age of 11 years old she started preparing for the 1936 Olympics. At school, Helene was chosen as one of two students to be a candidate for the 1936 Olympics. When the time came closer to the Olympics, Helene ended up being disqualified from swimming for Germany, because they found out she was Jewish. The disqualification came before the Jews were required to wear arm bands identifying themselves as Jews.

-story about walking on opposite side of street as her mom and brother since her and her father had blond hair and blue eyes and look more like the “Aryan Race.”

A program was offered by a charitable organization to bring Jewish children under 16 years old by ship to America “ insert name of program.“ This program was created to save the Jewish children from the Nazis. At first the program fell apart, but then later was put back together. Helene was 14 years old and was eligible to leave Germany for the United States, her brother Oscar on the other hand was turning 16 that incoming weekend, which made him eligible to go. The age limit was capped at 16, because the United States did not want anyone to take jobs to be taken away from the Americans. They also wanted the children to be able to go to school and not work. Helene’s cousin Eva left two months ahead and raved how great America was to her parents back home. Since Eva sent home rave reviews about Chicago, holding back the fact that she was in an orphanage. Eva held back details about her life in Chicago, so that Helene would join her and she would have a friend with her in America. For Helene’s safety her family decided to send her with “insert program name.” Mathes and Charlotte went to the train station in Hamburg, Germany to say goodbye to their 14 year old daughter.

This was the last time Helene saw her parents, they were able to write one another, but eventually her family entered into a concentration camp and were never heard from again. Her brother Oscar is the only surviving member of the concentration camps. After the war, Oscar was able to join Helene in America.

At just 14 years old Helene was then sent with the program from Germany to the United States. Helene got to the United States in August. All of the children from her transport stayed in New York, but Helene left New York for Chicago. Eva was in Chicago waiting for Helene to come join her.