The Star: August 09, 2018

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday August 9 2018 9
Local
News
Now
Fire rages, homes at risk
survivor shares her story with Chch schools
She never saw him again.
At the age of six, Mrs Spiegel,
her mother Tauba Rigman, and
two younger siblings, Albert
and Regine, were rounded up
by French police and locked in
a bicycle velodrome, along with
13,000 other Jews.
This became known as the
notorious Vel’ d’Hiv Round-up.
“There was no water, food or
toilets. The noise overwhelmed
me. Men were screaming, women
howling and babies crying,” said
Mrs Spiegel.
A sympathetic policeman came
to the aid of Mrs Rigman, and
released the family, in what Mrs
Spiegel describes as a “miracle.”
Most from the round-up were
sent to Auschwitz.
Mrs Rigman then made an
“agonising decision.”
In order to keep her children
safe, she sent them into hiding in
a rural town in the north-west of
France, with two farmers.
“My mother told me don’t
worry, the war will be finished
soon. I was seven-years-old, of
course I believed her.”
That was the last time she ever
saw her mother.
When money stopped coming
from Mrs Rigman, the farmers
sent the children to a Jewish
orphanage.
It wasn’t until almost 40 years
later, when she was 54-years-old,
did Mrs Spiegel find out the fate
of her parents.
Jewish lawyer Serge Klarsfeld
released a book titled Le mémorial
de la déportation des juifs de
France, containing a compilation
of names of French Jews deported
from France.
“I was hoping for a while that
they had managed to get to Russia,
like lots of others did . . . once
the book came out . . . I saw their
names in black and white.”
“Up until then I wasn’t sure what
happened to my parents. I never
gave up hope, I thought they may
have remained alive, I was hoping
but then I read it,” she said.
When she returned to France
in 2010, Mrs Spiegel found out
her mother had been denounced
by her neighbour, who was paid
by the Nazis. Mrs Rigman was
taken away by authorities.
For several years Mrs Spiegel
and her younger siblings lived in
an orphanage before they were
told the “thrilling” news that they
SHARING:
Rangi Ruru
Girls’ School
students (from
left) Annabelle
Schneideman,
Coco Kennard
and Liv
Hurndell
with Jewish
Holocaust
survivor
Vivianne
Spiegel, who
spoke to girls
about her
experiences in
France during
World War 2.
were going to be adopted by a
Jewish couple in Australia.
Following a six week voyage,
the three children arrived in Australia
in 1948. Mrs Spiegel was 13.
“Then came the dreadful shock.
We had been bluffed,” she said.
There was no family waiting
for them and they were sent to
another orphanage.
Eventually, the three children
were reluctantly adopted by a
couple, who really only wanted to
adopt the youngest, Regine.
“I was 16-years-old and had a
AUSCHWITZ FACTS
Auschwitz deaths:
Estimated 1.1 million
Estimated deaths of Jews
by country:
Austria – 50,000
Belgium – 25,000
Belorussia – 245,000
France – 90,000
Germany – 130,000
Hungary – 450,000
Lithuania – 220,000
The Netherlands – 106,000
Poland – 2,900,000
Russia – 107,000
Romania – 270,000
Ukraine – 900,000
Paris Vel’ d’Hiv Velodrome
round-up – estimated
13,000 Jews
lot of mental baggage from the
war. We weren’t loved or cared for.
My mental problems were never
spoken about or dealt with.”
Now at 84, Mrs Spiegel finally
has the family she dreamed of,
with three children and 10
grandchildren.
Her talk at Rangi was “a massive
shock” to the audience, said year
10 student Coco Kennard.
“As a child she must of felt so
helpless. She had no one to turn
to. She would have been scared,
confused and had no certainty.”
Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei – For us and our children after us