United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abraham Spiegel (1906-2004) was born in Munkács, Hungary (Mukacheve, Ukraine) to sawmill owner Henrik (Haim) Spiegel and his wife, Fani Weiser. He married Edita (Eta) Rosenwasser (1916-1999) from Bardejov (Slovakia) in 1940. In 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz with the entire Spiegel family, and their two year old son Uziel (Oscar) and Edita’s mother were killed in a gas chamber. Abraham survived Auschwitz, Fünfteichen, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, and a death march. He was reunited with his wife after the war, they had son Thomas in 1946, immigrated to the United States in December 1947, settled in California, and had daughter Rita in 1948. Abraham Spiegel became a prominent real estate developer, formed Columbia Savings & Loan, and was a major philanthropist.
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The Abraham Spiegel papers are arranged as a single series.
The Abraham Spiegel papers consist of biographical materials documenting the Spiegel family, originally from Munkács (formerly Hungary) and Bardejov (Slovakia). Records include birth, marriage, and death certificates, residency and citizenship documents, and immigration and naturalization records. The papers particularly reflect the Spiegel family’s efforts to document their Hungarian citizenship to avoid deportation as Jewish non-citizens following the border realignments of the First Vienna Award in 1938 as well as Abraham’s immigration to the United States in 1947 with his wife and son.
Abraham Spiegel papers