Hugo Spiegel

Hugo Spiegel (born June 28, 1905 in Versmold ; † 1987 ) was a Westphalian cattle dealer from Versmold and the father of Paul Spiegel , who later became President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany .

Life

Stumbling block for Hugo Spiegel in Schützenstrasse in Warendorf .

→ See also: Warendorf Jewish Community

Hugo Spiegel, like his father and grandfather, worked as a cattle dealer in Versmold. Due to the growing anti-Semitism in their home town, the family moved to the takeover of the Nazis in the neighboring Warendorf . After the November pogroms in 1938 , the family decided to move to Brussels with their nine-year-old daughter Rosa and toddler Paul , where Hugo Spiegel had found work and accommodation.

Registration card of Hugo Spiegel as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp Dachau

When the Wehrmacht occupied Belgium in 1940 , the family was initially able to go into hiding in Brussels. However, the hiding place was soon discovered and Hugo was deported . He survived the Buchenwald , Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps . The daughter Rosa was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. His wife and son Paul went into hiding in Belgium.

Hugo Spiegel returned to Warendorf as the first Jew in 1945 and brought his surviving family to live with him. He rebuilt the Jewish community and initiated the reconstruction of the destroyed synagogue . His commitment was to Judaism in the entire Münsterland and so Spiegel was also involved in the re-establishment of the Jewish community of Münster . The consecration of the new Münster synagogue in 1961 would not have been possible without his help. A memorial stone commemorates Hugo Spiegel in front of the former synagogue in Warendorf .

Hugo Spiegel is buried in the new Jewish cemetery on Hugo-Spiegel-Strasse in Warendorf.

Web links

• Paul Spiegel in the Warendorfer Lexikon

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matthias Brömmelhaus: Moved to unknown. The history of the Warendorf Jews during the Third Reich. Archive of the Warendorf district, 1988, p. 72