Rolf Spier-Donati (M / Germany, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Rolf Spier-Donati (M / Germany, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Marianne Spier-Donati (F / Germany, 1930), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Belgium> <Gurs> <France> <Italy> <Hidden Children> -- <France>

• MEMOIRS : Return to Erfurt (2000), by Olga Tarcali

Biography

Marianne (Erfurt, 1930) and Rolf (Erfurt, 1932) were the children of Carl Spier and Hild Wolff. After the Nuremberg Laws came into force, the Spier family decided on November 19, 1935 to emigrate to Brussels, Belgium. With the German invasion in 1940 the family went to France where they were sent for some time to the Gurs detention center. Once they were released, they settled in southern France. In mid-August 1942 the parents were arrested and sent to Auschwitz (they both perished). The children were taken by Jewish philanthropist Angelo Donati, who was engaged in secret rescue missions of Jews in Southern France. In September 1943, while traveling to Italy, Donati had to flee to Switzerland. Donati's vallet, Francesco Moraldo, took the children and hid them in Creppo a small village in the municipality of Triora in Liguria, Italy, his birthplace. At the end of the war the children were reunited with Angelo Donati (who officially adopted them) and lived in France. Francesco Moraldo was recognized by Yad-Vashem as "righteous among the nations."

Book : Return to Erfurt (2000), by Olga Tarcali

• French ed. Retour à Erfurt, 1935-1945: récit d'une jeunesse éclatée 2001 (Paris: Harmattan, 2000). Hebrew ed. (Yerushalayim : Yad ṿa-shem, 2006). English ed. Return to Erfurt: Story of a Shattered Childhood, 1935-1945 (New York: CPL Editions, 2014).

"The power of this book derives from the immeasurable tragedy of the Shoah, viewed through the plight of the Spiers, a German Jewish family from Erfurt, Germany, flung into the heart of the violent anti-Semitic persecution." --Serge Klarsfeld, from the preface. The book is a tour de force, written in the first person by Tarcali, who brilliantly relates the story from the point of view of Marianne Spier-Donati, who was 5 years old when the story begins. The narrative follows the family's flight from Germany to Brussels, through the grim French camps in Gurs and Saint-Cyprien, to the Cote D'Azur. After the capture of their parents, Marianne and her brother were taken under the protection of the Italian Jewish banker and philanthropist Angelo Donati. The Spier children lived in Nice with Donati -a key figure in the underground Jewish rescue efforts in Southern France- until September 1943, when he brought them into hiding in Italy. The Spier parents perished in the deportation-and after the war Angelo Donati adopted the children and gave them his name. The point of departure for the book is the crucial moment in 1999 when Marianne Spier-Donati, who had been living in Paris, is contemplating a return to Erfurt, at the invitation of the city's mayor. The conflicting emotions and clash between the ambiguities of the adult survivor and the unhealed pain of the child who has lost her beloved parents, are given a clear voice in this searing book. Olga Tarcali was born in Paris, into a Russian-Hungarian family. She worked as Editorial Assistant for various publications and as copywriter in an advertising agency. In this book she recounts the fate of her childhood friend, Marianne Spier Donati."--Publisher description.

"The narrative follows the family's flight from Germany to Brussels, through the grim French camps in Gurs and Saint-Cyprien, to the Cote D'Azur. After the capture of their parents, Marianne and her brother were taken under the protection of the Italian Jewish banker and philanthropist Angelo Donati. The Spier children lived in Nice with Donati--a key figure in the underground Jewish rescue efforts in Southern France--until September 1943, when he brought them into hiding in Italy. The Spier parents perished in the deportation--and after the war Angelo Donati adopted the children and gave them his name. The point of departure for the book is the crucial moment in 1999 when Marianne Spier-Donati, who had been living in Paris, is contemplating a return to Erfurt, at the invitation of the city's mayor. The book is a tour de force, written in the first person by Tarcali, who brilliantly relates the story from the point of view of Marianne Spier-Donati, who was 5 years old when the story begins. The conflicting emotions and clash between the ambiguities of the adult survivor and the unhealed pain of the child who has lost her beloved parents, are given a clear voice in this searing book--Publisher description.

"Memoirs of Marianne Spier-Donati as related to Olga Tarcali. Marianne Spier was born in 1930 to a wealthy Jewish family in Erfurt. She, her parents and brother fled to Belgium in 1935, and to France in 1940. As immigrant Jews, they were interned first in Gurs and then in Saint-Cyprien. Upon their release in 1941, they settled on the French Riviera, but were arrested by the French police in August 1942. The parents were deported to Auschwitz and killed, while Marianne and her brother went to the Italian-occupied zone. They were received by Angelo Donati, an Italian Jew and secret adviser to the Italian occupation authorities. The children were not arrested when the Germans took over because they had gone on a trip to Florence with Donati, who later adopted them. With his help, the children found refuge in the Ligurian Alps, where they lived for two years, on several occasions hiding from the Germans in the mountains. After the war, Marianne settled in Paris"--Publisher description.

"Ce récit est l'histoire du retour de Marianne dans la ville allemande d'où ses parents furent chassés par les lois raciales. Retour aussi à Bruxelles où la famille s'était réfugiée, puis en Italie, dans un village très pauvre et reculé des Alpes ligures où Marianne vivra une existence périlleuse et sans cesse menacée par les représailles allemandes en cette région de partisans. C'est aussi l'histoire de son sauvetage miraculeux par Angelo Donati, lors de la grande rafle à Nice en 1942 qui emportera ses parents."--Publisher description <French>