us-005578-irn78343-irn514816
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/278
is or was included in: us-005578-irn78343
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as a single series.
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/701
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn78343-irn514816/acquisitions/1
scope and content: The collection consists of two photograph albums of Sam and Regina Spiegel, both of whom were survivors of Auschwitz and other concentration camps. One albums depicts the family from the 1940s-1960s. The other album depicts Sam and Regina's wedding in the Föhrenwald displaced persons camp in 1946.
date: circa 1940-circa 1960
biographical history: Shmuel Szpigel was born on August 23, 1922, in Kozienice, Poland, to Moses and Sara Eiger Szpigel. Shmuel had a brother, Wolf, born in 1924. Moses was born in 1898 to Chaim and Rywka Szpigel. He had two sisters who left for the United States by 1928, and a brother and a sister who lived in Kozienice. Sara was born in 1900 in Łódź to Shama and Miriam Eiger. In 1926, Sara died. Moses married Mania Szer in 1928. They had three daughters: Luba, born 1929, Chana, born 1931, and Rozia, born 1934. Moses owned a successful shoe factory and was active in Zionist organizations. The town grew increasingly hostile to Jews during the 1930s and passed laws to restrict their businesses. Shmuel attended a Catholic school and faced anti-Jewish slurs from the students and principal. He attended Hebrew school three days a week. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and that day, a bomb fell on Shmuel’s home. The family was not inside, but lost most of their belongings and moved in with Shmuel’s grandmother. German forces marched in on September 8. Jews were violently persecuted and many were killed. Moses’s shoe factory was taken away, and schools were closed. Moses had hidden some valuables and sold them for necessities. In October, the Judenrat (Jewish Council) was formed. Shmuel worked for the Labor Department, and tracked those selected daily by the German for forced labor details. The ghetto was sealed with barbed wire around December 1941. Shmuel and his family lived in one room and had very little to eat. Because of his job, Shmuel received food coupons and had a pass to leave the ghetto to try to buy or barter for food. The ghetto was overcrowded, diseases spread rapidly, and many people died of starvation. When Shmuel got typhus, they kept it secret, afraid that he would be killed if it was known. In September 1942, an SS officer asked Shmuel if he wanted to go to the nearby Pionki labor camp. Shmuel agreed because he was did not want to continue working for the Juden…
type: RecordSet
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/1212
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn78343-irn514816/alternateIDs/1
record resource extent: oversize box 1
identifier: irn514816
title: Sam and Regina Spiegel photograph albums
has record set type: Item
has or had holder: us-005578