Brass Hanukiah carried by a German Jewish family who immigrated to Ecuador

Ruth Spier (née Steinberg, 1903-1981) was born in Peckelshiem, Germany, to Siegfried (1874-1945) and Fanny (née Gruenwald) Steinberg. Ruth had one younger brother, Ernest Steinberg (1906-1984). Her father, Siegfried, was a teacher at the local Jewish school and was cantor and leader of the congregation. In 1915, he accepted a new teaching position and the family moved to Wolfenbüttel. Ruth finished school and went to work for a family to learn domestic work and sewing. Ruth’s family lived modestly and her mother was very devout. Ruth met Alfred Spier (1900-1937) who was studying to be a teacher and worked at the Jewish school where Ruth's father taught. Alfred grew up on a farm in Zwesten (Hessen) where his father was the local shochet (kosher slaughterer). The two married in 1928, and settled in Frankfurt am Main, where Alfred found a position as a teacher. A year later, they moved to Hannover, where they had two daughters, Elisabeth (1930-2015) and Hannah (b.1934). On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Anti-Jewish decrees were passed that restricted every aspect of Jewish life. Alfred was a Zionist, and with growing anti-Semitism in Germany, was hoping to immigrate with his family to Palestine. However, in July 1937, while visiting his family on their farm, Alfred fell ill with a fever and died. As part of Kristallnacht, on November 10, 1938, Ruth’s father and brother were arrested by the Gestapo and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp. They were released 6 weeks later. With the increasing violence, Ruth and her brother decided the best plan was to try to leave Germany as soon as possible. Jewish emigration experienced a dramatic rise and it became increasingly difficult to obtain entry visas to other countries. Ruth, her daughters, her brother Ernest, and his wife and son were finally able to obtain entry and passage to Ecuador. Their mother, Fanny, was ill and unable to travel so she and Siegfried stayed behind in Germany. By this time, anti-Semitic legislation required Jews to relinquish all their precious metals and stones to the state. Ruth defied this decree and risked her life by sewing her remaining valuables into the lining of the clothing and linens she was permitted to take with her to Ecuador. In March 1939, Ruth and her two daughters took a train to the Netherlands to visit family before they departed. They met up with her brother and his family and the two families boarded the Caribia to Panama and then the Santa Clara to Guayaquil, Ecuador. Ruth and her daughters remained in Ecuador for one year, before being permitted to immigrate to the United States. In May 1940, they boarded the SS Santa Lucia for New York. Ruth discovered that her mother had died of cancer and her father had been deported to the Warsaw Ghetto. She received a final card from her father in December 1942, and he was declared dead on May 8, 1945. Ruth and her daughters settled in Washington Heights, New York, where some of their relatives and friends already lived. Shortly after, her brother Ernest and his family immigrated to New York as well. She found work in the garment industry and was able to support her family. Ruth died of cancer on April 26, 1981.

The Hanukiah was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by Walter and Hannah Spier Hess.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Walter and Hannah Hess