Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel
Chaike B. Spiegel | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 11, 1920 Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | March 26, 2002 (aged 81) Montreal, Canada |
| Organization | Jewish Labor Bund Jewish Fighting Organization (known by the Polish acronym ZOB) |
| Spouse | Boruch Yakir Spiegel |
Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel (November 11, 1920 – March 26, 2002), also called Helen,[1] was a Jewish resistance fighter and one of the last survivors in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis.[2]
Early life
[edit]Spiegel was born in Warsaw, Poland,[1] to a radical mother.[3] She was a member of the Marxist socialist Jewish Labor Bund.[1] After the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Polish Jews were systematically deported.[1]
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
[edit]She joined the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) in January 1943[2] after she escaped from the train that was taking her to Treblinka extermination camp in November 1942.[1] On the first night of the Jewish Feast of Passover on April 19, 1943, under the command of Colonel Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, a Nazi force entered the Warsaw Ghetto to resume deportation, but they were repelled by ZOB and other resistance groups thereby suffering heavy losses.[1][2] The Germans were taken by surprise as the fighters were poorly armed with only a handful of smuggled outdated weapons, improvised Molotov cocktails and little ammunition.[1]
The Nazis retaliated under the command of General Jürgen Stroop after Colonel Sammern-Frankenegg was relieved of his command, but were once more blocked by the Jewish after several days of rigorous fighting.[2] The Germans then decided to change their approach and brought in flamethrowers to systematically burn down the ghetto.[1] On May 8, they used poison gas[1] and the ZOB headquarters fell.[1]
An estimate of 7,000 Jews were killed during the fighting and 30,000 were deported to death camps while 50 to 100 Jewish resistance fighters escaped to the woods outside of Warsaw.[1]
Spiegel moved to Sweden after the Germans were driven from Poland by Soviet troops.[2] She was married to Boruch Yakir Spiegel[4] who was one of the Jewish resistance fighters that managed to escape from the ghetto to the forests outside Warsaw.[2] They were refused American visas and resided in Sweden and Canada after the war.[1]
Regarding the war experience, Spiegel was quoted as saying "Whenever we start a conversation — it can be about the weather — we always end up talking about the years over there. Without fail. I remember everything. It’s so in my mind, so vivid in my memory."[3]
Death
[edit]She died in Montreal, Canada on March 26, 2002.[1] She had a son and a daughter.[5][2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pennington, Reina (2003). Amazons to Fighter Pilots - A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women (Volume Two). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 414–415. ISBN 0-313-32708-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Paul (2002-04-07). "Chaike B. Spiegel, Who Battled Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, Dies at 81". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
- ^ a b "November 11: Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel, Ghetto Fighter". Jewish Currents. 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
- ^ "Chaike "Helen" Belchatowska Spiegel (1920 - 2002) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
- ^ "Boruch Spiegel dies at 93; survivor of Warsaw ghetto uprising". Los Angeles Times. 2013-05-21. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-07-24.