Hess, Spier and Steinberg family collection

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn551365
• English
• folders box 10 1
• Updated 1 year ago

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 ...

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn555474
• English
• 1937
• a: Height: 8.250 inches (20.955 cm) | Width: 7.000 inches (17.78 cm) | Depth: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) b: Height: 2.125 inches (5.398 cm) | Width: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm)
• Updated 1 year ago

Hanukiah that belonged to Ruth Spier’s husband Alfred and was carried by his family when they emigrated from Germany in March 1939, to escape persecution. The Hanukiah is lit during the festival of Hanukkah. It has eight candles in line with each other with a ninth candle at a different height that is lit first and then used to light the others. Ruth and her husband Alfred lived in Hannover, Germany, where he taught at a Jewish school. Alfred unexpectedly died of a fever in 1937, leaving behind two young daughters, Elizabeth and Hannah, and Ruth a widow. As part of Kristallnacht, on Novembe...