At our monthly Stories Survive Speaker Series, hear Holocaust survivors share their life stories in their own words.
On March 3, Arthur Spielman will speak about his experiences during World War II.
Arthur Spielman was born in Poland in 1928. He grew up in Krakow with his parents and two sisters. His father was a businessman and his mother was a homemaker.
After the war began, Arthur’s grandparents were forced into the Krakow Ghetto. Arthur’s immediate family was not ordered into the ghetto because his father was a foreign citizen, but they decided to follow Arthur’s grandparents so the family could be together and care for one another. Tragically, Arthur’s grandparents were murdered in the first major round-up. His family then moved out of the ghetto once again. To try to protect them, the family arranged for Arthur and his cousin to be smuggled into Slovakia and later into Hungary, where Arthur was placed in an orphanage. Working tirelessly to try to keep the family safe, Arthur’s father was able to obtain false papers in Budapest, where the family reunited and used the false papers to pass as Christians.
In 1944 Arthur and his family were liberated by the Soviet Army. They lived for three years in Displaced Persons camps outside of Munich and immigrated to the United States in May 1949.
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Free; advance reservations recommended