Warsaw Ghetto Uprising veteran Boruch Spiegel dies

Arrests during the uprising: wikipedia

His son Julius Spiegel confirmed the news yesterday, noting that his father passed away earlier this month at the nursing home where he had spent the last four years.

Until his death, Boruch Spiegel had been one of an estimated four surviving combatants who had taken part in the Jewish insurgency that was launched on 19 April 1943.

Last month, during the 70th anniversary of the uprising, only one of those veterans, Simcha Rotem, was able to attend the official commemorations in Warsaw.

Spiegel, like other insurgents, escaped from the Jewish Ghetto at the last hour via the sewers.

Among those who escaped in this way was Chaike Belchatowska, who Spiegel would ultimately marry.

After fleeing the ghetto, Spiegel joined up with Polish partisans in the forests outside Warsaw, returning to the capital for the doomed Warsaw Rising of 1944.

Spiegel's future wife wanted to remain in Poland after the war, but he encouraged her to make a fresh start abroad.

The couple moved first to Sweden and then to Canada, where he established a leatherwear factory.

Besides his son Julius, Boruch Spiegel is survived by a daughter, Mindy, and four grandchildren. (nh)

Source: New York Times

Click here to listen to Polish Radio English Section's soecial report on the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.