Marga Spiegel

Adolf Hitler restructured the government of Germany beginning on 30 January 1933 when he was appointed chancellor of Germany. Hitler and other Nazis changed the form of government to a dictatorship from its former republic. Legislation was enacted that classified people by whether or not they were beneficial or harmful to the country. If they were undesirable, such as if they were Jewish, they were classified as "enemies of the state" or "outcasts".[5] Following Hitler's lead, the mayor of their town persecuted Jews, like Siegmund Rothschild and his family. They were subject to arrest on "flimsy" charges, taunted, and attacked.[4] The family considered fleeing Germany, but Cilly was in very poor health[4] due to a chronic heart condition.[8] Siegmund Rothschild was convicted of usury and fraud and sentenced to prison. Marga was apprehended several times.[4] After her daughter was born, bystanders threw stones at the stroller when Spiegel took her daughter for walks.[7]

Marga Rothschild married Siegmund (Menne) Spiegel, becoming Marga Spiegel, in January 1937.[1][3] Her husband served during World War I and received the Iron Cross for courage on the battlefield.[9][10] Siegmund was a successful horse[2][9] and cattle trader in northern Germany.[11] The Spiegels developed good relationships with Siegmund's customers who lived near Ahlen in Münsterland.[6][12]

Spiegel's mother, Cilly, died on 18 March 1937,[8] about the time of Marga and Siegmund's marriage.[4] Her father and sister moved in with the Spiegels after Cilly's death. Siegmund Rothschild was arrested on 14 June 1938 at his daughter's home.[8] As Nazi Germany began rounding up and deporting Jews en masse to extermination camps, her father was taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp[4][11] and died there on 12 July 1938, about one month after his arrest.[8][lower-alpha 1]

The Spiegels lived initially in Ahlen,[1] where their daughter Karin was born in 1938.[2][13] After the war, they had a son.[14]

While Spiegel wanted to immigrate to Palestine,[6] Siegmund believed that he would be excluded from persecution. His feelings changed after Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass, 9 to 10 November 1938)[11] when men from the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) organization entered the Spiegel's residence in Ahlen and used clubs to beat Siegmund, Spiegel, and her sister Inge Johanna (Johanna) Rothschild. The SA men also raided their home.[4] Johanna married Leo Spiegel within a few years.[8][lower-alpha 2]

"Whoever wears this sign is an enemy of our people" – Parole der Woche, July 1, 1942

Around the time Siegmund decided to leave Germany, World War II had begun (1 September 1939),[11] and they were no longer able to leave the country.[4] Spiegel and her husband were required to wear badges in the shape of yellow stars on their clothes to identify themselves as Jews.[2] Since 1939, their identification cards also classified them as Jewish.[18]

The Nazi government forced the Spiegels and any other remaining Jews to leave Ahlen in November 1942.[19] They moved into a building for Jews in Dortmund, sharing an apartment with six other families.[13] When the Nazi regime assigned Siegmund to forced labor, he worked in a colliery-related business.[13][18] The family and the rest of Siegmund's work unit moved into former Army barracks in Ahlen.[7][13][18] By February 1943, there were few Jews left in Dortmund.[19]

My husband had to perform forced labor. Jews could be deployed only in columns of about 17 men and had non-Jewish supervisors. For many of our acquaintances, the concentration camp existence began at that time. They had supervisors who ordered them around like slaves and harassed them when in the mood.

— Marga Spiegel[20]

The Spiegels began to hear rumors that German Jews were sent east to Poland by the Nazi government.[13] They heard that after Jews dug their own graves, they were shot by Germans at the prepared sites.[7] To avoid his family from being taken by the Nazis, Siegmund reached out to cattle farmers in the Lüdinghausen area that he knew to help develop a plan to hide. Since the rations allotted to Jews were insufficient, he also sought ways to get more food. He found that the farmers offered shelter when they needed it, and until then, they dropped off food periodically for the Spiegels.[13] Siegmund also rented a bike from one of the farmers he knew and drove in a circuit to friend's farms to pick up extra food that the farmers provided.[7]

The Germans exterminated 37 people from Siegmund's family.[18] Most of their Jewish neighbors had been deported from Dortmund as the Speiegels tried to plan their next steps.[2] They received a summons to report to a meeting with the Gestapo at a slaughterhouse on 27 February 1943, with the pretext of ensuring that their working papers were in order.[2][18] On the day that they were supposed to report to the Gestapo, the Spiegels removed their yellow patches from their clothes and headed for the railroad station.[13]

Realizing that they would be less likely to be caught if they split up, they planned for Spiegel to take their daughter, and Siegmund would hide on his own.[13] Marga had blonde hair like stereotypical Aryans, so the mother and daughter would more easily blend in with other Germans.[2] Mother and daughter assumed new names[9] and headed for the town of Herbern to stay with Heinrich Aschoff.[13] Spiegel told Karin that her father was a soldier and was going away to fight the war.[18] It was harder to find a place of Siegmund to stay because he was the age of military soldiers[18] and was also known for his job.[2][9] Still he found a family to stay with in Dolberg (near Ahlen).[13] That situation only lasted for three weeks due to their own family crises and because the children feared being found to have harbored a Jew. After he left the family in Dolberg, he went to Hubert Pentrop's farm.[21] He was fortunately warned when SS personnel were in the area.[9] Spiegel said that she believed the farmers and their families were motivated by their faith and sense of humanity, explicitly mentioning that they were driven by the commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself".[7]

One of the farms in Westphalia used for the film made from her memoir Saviors in the Night

Another image from the same farm

Sigmund reached out to Hubert Pentrop of Nordkirchen for assistance when he began planning to hide. Pentrop warned him that he and his family should not go to Poland. He offered to help the Spiegels with food and shelter.[22] When the arrangement with the family in Dolberg did not work out, Hubert Pentrop took him in. Heinrich's wife was pregnant and seriously ill. A young woman, Maria Südfeld, moved in with the Pentrops to help with his wife and their six children. She found out about Siegmund and promised not to tell anyone that he was at the Pentrop's house.[23] Pentrop made up a specific knock sequence that should be the only one that Siegmund responded to.[18] Siegmund alternated hiding in the cellar, attic, and hayloft. He stayed hidden throughout the day, and at night he could go for a short walk.[22][23]

Siegmund was only able to get a glimpse of his daughter only once during their years in hiding.[9] He put on Pentrop's uniform from World War I, wore his own Iron Cross medal, and Siegmund pretended that he was visiting on a holiday.[18]

After about nine months, he was spotted by a Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend).[22][23] The boy had heard the secret knock, and used it himself on another visit. Siegmund opened the door and was seen.[18] Siegmund moved out and lived briefly with a family who became very afraid of having him in their house. He then went to Heinrich Silkenbömer's farm.[23] Pentrop received the title Righteous Among the Nations on 20 July 1969. After the war, he was recognized for supplying essential goods, rescuing and hiding Jews, and arranging shelter.[22]

A farmer, Heinrich Aschoff, took in Spiegel and her daughter Karin. Heinrich and his wife had eight children, one of who was a soldier. The Aschoff told their two oldest daughters that Spiegel and her daughter were Jews.[13] Anni, one of the older girls, was a member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM), the female Hitler Youth organization, also known as the League of German Girls.[18] Mirjam picked them up from the train station.[24] The story for the other children and people outside of the family was that the mother and daughter needed a safe place to stay outside the city where they would not be subject as much to air raids. They said that her husband, Mr. Krone, was fighting the war at the front.[12][13] They were known as the "Bombed-Out Krone Family from Dortmund".[6]

The Aschoffs, prone to sheltering other refugees[24] and having a lot of visitors, entertained a policeman one day who put Karin on his lap. When he asked her name, the little girl, fortunately, answered Karin Krone.[18] While at the Aschoff's farm in Herbern Lüdinghausen, Spiegel performed household chores. She and her daughter moved to other family's homes periodically to reduce the risk of being caught.[2] In one case, Spiegel moved out after one of the yellow badges fell out of its hiding place in her glove seemingly unnoticed.[23] After the war, Aschoff received the title Righteous Among the Nations on 20 July 1969. He was recognized for supplying essential goods and shelter.[2] The Spiegels and Aschoffs remained friends for life.[14]

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The Spiegels knew the Sickmanns, who had been customers. They brought food to them once the Spiegel's food was rationed by the Nazis.[24] Spiegel and her daughter sometimes stayed in Werne, Lüdinghausen with the Sickmann family,[25] but the house was small and they had workers from other countries staying with them. They were always a source of food when the Spiegels needed it.[12] When she was there, Spiegel attended church with Johanna Sickmann.[6][23] Spiegel came to know Father Venantius, who offered to take in Spiegel and her daughter at the monastery if they needed shelter. Venantius counseled to the Catholic families who rescued her.[6] In May 1944, someone alerted the police that Spiegel and her daughter were at the Pentrop's house. She escaped and went to the Sickmann's house, where mother and daughter stayed throughout the end of the war.[26] Allied forces bombed Münster heavily in the fall of 1944, and Marga requested false identification from the Münster police office. She claimed that her paperwork was destroyed during the bombing.[27] After the war, Sickmann received the title Righteous Among the Nations on 20 July 1969 for sheltering and providing goods for Spiegel and Karin.[25] The Sickmann's granddaughter, Leoni Sickmann, attended the school in Werne that was named after Marga Spiegel and was at the ceremony that Spiegel attended when the school was opened.[28]

Spiegel and her daughter sometimes stayed at a farm in Südkirchen, Lüdinghausen, with the Südfeld family.[29] They previously met Bernard's daughter Maria Südfeld at the Pentrop's house, where she was a housekeeper.[30] After the war, Südfeld received the title Righteous Among the Nations on 20 July 1969 for sheltering and providing goods for Spiegel and Karin.[29]

After about nine months in hiding, the Silkenbömer family at Lüdinghausen took in Siegmund. Heinrich and his wife had two sons who were away fighting in the war. Siegmund stayed in the bedroom of one of the sons. He was treated well, and Marga was able to visit him occasionally at their farm.[13] He lived there until the end of the war.[31] After the war, Silkenbömer received the title Righteous Among the Nations on 20 July 1969, for sheltering and providing goods for Siegmund.[31]