• From Berlin to Brussels

• Exile

• Deportation

From Berlin to Brussels

Siegmund Spira was born in Berlin in 1923, first boy and third child of Herzel and Rosa.

All the children in the family used to go to Adas Ysroel religious school.

The family used to live Keibelstrasse, 4 in Berlin.

In december 1938 a few weeks after Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, Siegmund and his younger brother Felix have the authorisation to go to Belgium with a Kindertransport

They arrived in Brussels area on the 31^st of January 1939.

On February 4, Siegmund is given a permission to stay in Belgium until November 1939.

He is at first sent in a children home and soon after he is able to join the family in Brussels.

Exile in France

At the outburst of war on May 10 1940, Siegmund and the family escape to France but they are soon arrested as "enemy aliens" and sent to French internment camp of Bram, in sealed wagon. They enter the camp on June the 3^rd 1940; Siegmund and Herzel are in barrack 147 with the men, Felix who is 11 is with the women in barrack 135. They are all released on June 30 a week after the armistice.

The French administration sends them to Salleles d'Aude in forced residence.
Siegmund who is 17 years old and his father are sent to work for a G.T.E ( group of foreign workers) located in a salt mine, then later in a factory.

In early 1942, fearing for his son's life Herzel urges him to escape. Siegmund after being shot arrives in Lamalou les Bains, where his sister Gisela who is now married, and her husband, stay with their new born baby.

The rest of the Spira family remains in Salleles d'Aude until August, 26 1942 when the round ups against foreigner Jews occur and when everyone except Gisela and Siegmund are caught and taken to the camp of Rivesaltes before deportation from Drancy to Auschwitz.

During spring 1943 Siegmund who has been hiding in various places in the southern zone of France is staying again with his sister and her husband. The group moves to the Italian Occupied Zone ,outside of Nice in the Mercantour mountain in the Alps.
For a single summer, Siegmund as the other young Jewish refugees in St Martin Vesubie, enjoys a time of recreation.

St Martin is a small touristic resort where hundreds of Jewish refugees have been sent in forced residence by the Italian 's administration. It is also close to the border and many want to try to cross the mountains to wait for the allies army which is already in southern Italy.

By the end of August 1943, danger comes close again, and on September 3^rd it's the Italian armistice. On the 8^th of September the Wehrmacht starts the occupation of the area.The Gestapo arrives on September 10 in Nice.

Collection Lea Reuveni

In St Martin the local Jewish committee urges people to pack fast their belongings and to follow the Italian army which is retreating. Siegmund, along with a group of almost 1200 men,women and children try to escape through the Alps between the 9 and the 11 of September

in what is called a biblical exodus. 328 of them are intercepted and sent to the camp of Borgo San Dalmazzo

in Italy garded by S.S. and German soldiers.

The camp of Borgo San Dalmazzo

Deportation

Two months later November 21 ^st the camp is emptied and everyone has to walk to the train station for a first stop in Nice. In Nice they are interrogated by the Gestapo and then sent to Drancy. Siegmund enters Drancy camp on November 24 ^th .

In Drancy his money is taken by the French authorities, he owns 1 130 italian lire.

Siegmund Spira is deported to Auschwitz by convoy 64 on December 7^th 1943.

He is liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and sent back to Belgium.

Siegmund is the only survivor from his family.

In 2006 Siegmund Spira lives in the United States; he is 83 and is the last survivor of an Ordinary Exile