Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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outstanding communal work. 56 The deportation coincided with Passover, and
interviewees recalled Spier giving an inspiring and uplifting sermon just prior to
the festival and his deportation. Correspondence was received from him from
Warsaw for a period of time and then it ceased. It is not known whether Hermann
and Frieda Spier perished in the Warsaw ghetto or were deported to an
extermination camp. Spier’s son Hans emigrated to Palestine in 1933 and his
daughter Ruth survived the Shoah and immigrated to the USA. 57 His second son
Siegbert, who had married a Jewess from Magdeburg, Eva Bruck, was an
agricultural specialist and lived in Thomasdorf in Brandenburg. On 15 August
1942, both he and his wife were deported from Berlin to Riga, where they
perished. They were aged twenty-seven years old and twenty years old
respectively. 58
With Spier’s departure, the community lost its religious leader. For the
remaining official existence of the Jewish community, lay individuals led the
religious services. Given the strong influence of his personality and his dynamic
and varied role in the community, his departure only increased the despondency of
the community. Spier had displayed and imparted a sense of hope. For some,
Spier also embodied the resilience of the Jewish spirit, in celebrating and
cherishing Jewishness at this calamitous time. His deportation left a significant
vacuum which was not filled as the situation continued to deteriorate. Despite the
void, religious practices and services continued, often conducted by those whom
Spier had taught so dedicatedly.
56
M. F., op. cit., 27 June 1999.
57
Personal file on the Spier family, Bestand Pe, Signatur Nr. 44, ASGM, op. cit.
58
Zentralinstitut für sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung, Freie Universität Berlin, ed.,
op. cit., p. 1229.