Hess and Spier families papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Walter Hess
- Hannah Hess
Biographical History
Hannah Spier Hess was born on 12 February 1934 in Hannover, Germany, the daughter of Alfred Spier (1900-1937), a teacher, and Ruth (née Steinberg, 1903-1981) Spier. Alfred, who grew up on a farm in Zwesten (Hessen), met Ruth, a native of Wolfenbüttel, while he was studying to be a teacher, and working at the Jewish school where Ruth's father taught. The two married in 1928, settled in Frankfurt am Main, where Alfred found a position as a teacher, but a year later, moved to Hannover, where they had two daughters, Elisabeth (1930-2015) and Hannah. In July 1937, while visiting Alfred's family on their farm, he fell ill with a fever and died. Concerned with the rising anti-Semitism in Germany for some time, Ruth decided the best plan was to leave Germany with her two young daughters. In March 1939, the three of them left Germany for the Netherlands, and from there to Ecuador, where they remained for one year, before being permitted to immigrate to the United States. They settled in New York, where some of their relatives and friends already lived, and Ruth eventually found work in the garment industry. Hannah later studied at Hunter College, and met and married a fellow emigré from Germany, Walter Hess, in the early 1950s. After obtaining a master's degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hannah and Walter returned to New York, where she became a teacher.
Walter Hess was born Wolfgang Hess on 26 May 1931 in Siegburg, Germany, but grew up in the village of Ruppichteroth, near Bonn, the son of Oscar and Melitta (nee Krämer) Hess. His father was a cattle dealer, as was his father, Moses Hess. In addition to Walter, there were three other siblings: Karl (born 1932), Peter (born 1937) and Franklin (born 1941). Following Kristallnacht in November 1938, Oskar Hess was arrested and sent to Dachau, where he was imprisoned for a month and then released. After his return home, the family made plans to emigrate, and were able to leave Germany the following year, arriving in Guayaquil, Ecuador on 1 September 1939, the day when Germany invaded Poland. The Hess family settled in Quito, living there until June 1940, when they were able to immigrate to the United States, where they arrived in New York and settled in the neighborhood of Washington Heights. Walter attended George Washington High School, followed by City College (now City University) of New York. Following his graduation in 1952, he was inducted into the U.S. Army, and deployed to Germany, where he was stationed with American forces in Bavaria. During one of his leaves while stationed there, he travelled back to Ruppichteroth, visiting his hometown for the first time since 1939. Following his release from the Army, he studied for a master’s degree in film at the University of California, Los Angeles, but after those studies, returned to New York and pursued a career as a film editor. Although Walter’s immediate family survived via emigration, his grandparents, Moses and Henrietta Hess, were taken in June 1941 from their home in Ruppichteroth to an internment camp in Much (near Cologne), and in July 1942 were deported to Theresienstadt, where Moses died in October 1942, and Henrietta died in 1944.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Walter and Hannah Hess
Hannah S. Hess and Walter Hess donated the Hess and Spier families papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016.
Scope and Content
The Hess and Spier families papers consist of two typescript memoirs: "Refugee's Journey: A Memoir" (365 pages), by Walter Hess, and "An Extraordinary Woman," by Hannah S. Hess (421 pages, undated, circa 2007), as well as pre-war photographs of the family of Hannah Spier Hess, taken in Germany. The memoir of Hannah Hess focuses on the life of her mother, Ruth, describing her childhood in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, the history of her parents, Siegfried and Fanni Steinberg, her marriage to Alfred Spier, the birth and childhood of their two daughters, her immigration to the United States with her daughters following her husband's death, and their life in New York, primarily in Washington Heights, from the 1940s through the end of Ruth's life. The memoir of Walter Hess focuses largely on his childhood in Ruppichteroth, Germany, describing their farming life, his dawning awareness of anti-semitism toward the late 1930s, the imposition of anti-Jewish measures in his town, his family's eventual emigration from Germany by way of Holland, their arrival in Ecuador in 1939, and later immigration to the United States, his childhood and adolescence in New York, and his induction into the U.S. Army, including his deployment to Germany and return to his hometown in 1953.
System of Arrangement
The Hess and Spier families papers are arranged in two series: I. Memoirs, II. Photographs.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Hannah Hess
People
- Walter Hess
- Hannah Hess
- Hess, Melitta (1906-1998)
- Spier, Alfred (1900-1937)
- Hess, Oskar (1901-1976)
- Spier, Elisabeth (1930-2015)
- Steinberg, Siegfried.
- Spier, Ruth (1903-1981)
Subjects
- Ruppichteroth (Germany)
- Jews--Germany--Ruppichteroth.
- Washington Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Jewish refugees--Ecuador--Biography.
- Jews--Germany--Lower Saxony.
- Wolfenbüttel (Germany)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--North Rhine-Westphalia.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Lower Saxony.
- Ecuador.
- Jewish refugees--New York (State)--New York--Biography.
- Jews--Germany--Wolfenbüttel.
- Jews--Germany--North Rhine-Westphalia.
- Germany--Emigration and immigration.
Genre
- Document
- Memoirs.
- Photographs.