{"id":41984,"date":"2018-03-27T01:22:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T07:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=41984"},"modified":"2018-03-27T01:22:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T07:22:35","slug":"levy-spangenberg-speak-at-ww2-museum-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/levy-spangenberg-speak-at-ww2-museum-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Levy, Spangenberg speak at WW2 Museum event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ALAN SMASON<\/p>\n<p>The stories of Holocaust survivor Anne Skorecki Levy and World War II resistance fighter Nicole Spangenberg drew a crowd of almost 800 on March 21 at the National World War II Museum. Co-sponsored by the Greater New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women and the Junior League, the &#8220;Women of Courage&#8221; event was held in the Boeing Freedom Pavilion from 5:00 &#8211; 8:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_41991\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41991\" class=\"wp-image-41991 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41991\" class=\"wp-image-41991 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6402-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-41991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Spangenberg, left, Anne Skorecki Levy, center, and Kim Guise at the National World War II Museum&#8217;s &#8220;Women of Courage&#8221; event on March 21. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Peter Crean, the museum&#8217;s vice president for education and access, introduced Kim Guise, the assistant director of curatorial services, who served as both a moderator and interviewer for the talk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just staying alive was an act of resistance in Poland or someone who was in the organized resistance in France,&#8221; Crean said in his opening remarks . &#8220;Both of these women&#8217;s stories in World War II is absolutely amazing, but how their experiences during that war changed their lives later on and brought them to all of us tonight is&#8230;just remarkable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wearing the Legion of Honor pin she received in 2009 from the French government for her bravery, Spangenberg spoke first from the podium, recalling her life as a Paris teenager, which changed forever when she became a resistance fighter at 16, opposed to the Nazis.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_42013\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42013\" class=\"wp-image-42013 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42013\" class=\"wp-image-42013 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6417-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-42013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Spangenberg speaks about her experiences as a resistance fighter during World War II. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>She related the harrowing times during the war when she waged what today would be seen as guerilla warfare against the Nazi war machine. &#8220;The tide had began to turn against the Germans&#8230;in late 1942 &#8211; Operation Torch, as the campaign was known &#8211; proved to be the pivot point of the war,&#8221; Spangenberg recalled.<\/p>\n<p>She relocated to the country and became a part of a heralded group of resistance fighters known as the Maquis and located throughout France.&nbsp; Spangenberg noted she was the only woman in a detachment of 25 other fighters, most of whom were either shot, captured or who died when their barn hideout was set on fire by a German patrol tipped off to their presence. Spangenberg had luckily left the Maquis just prior to that action when she was captured and placed under house arrest, rejoining her family.<\/p>\n<p>Although records are sketchy, the French government believes some 220,000 fighters &#8211; men and women &#8211; joined the resistance like her, she said. &#8220;In the end, the French resistance proved to be a great value in the liberation of France.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;History teaches us there is a heavy cost,&#8221; Spangenberg noted in describing the lives lost in the struggle against the Nazis. &#8220;Let us remember them, honor them. It is important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Guise then introduced Levy.<\/p>\n<p>Never comfortable speaking from a dais, Levy asked Guise beforehand to pose questions to her. Her breathy, but detailed answers gave attendees some perspective of what she, her little sister Lila Millen and her parents endured during the war.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The experience was my sister and I did whatever our parents told us to do,&#8221; she admitted. &#8220;We listened because at a very early age we knew the danger we were in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_42014\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42014\" class=\"wp-image-42014 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42014\" class=\"wp-image-42014 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6429-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-42014\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anne Skorecki Levy speaks at the &#8220;Women of Courage&#8221; event at the National World War II Museum on March 21, 2018. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Levy&#8217;s father left for Russia prior to the invasion of Poland by the Nazis, leaving just her mother and the two small girls. They were eventually sent to the Lodz Ghetto.<\/p>\n<p>Later they were contacted by Levy&#8217;s father, Mark Skorecki, through a young emissary, but the three were unable to rejoin him when Lila fell ill. Levy&#8217;s mother, Ruth Skorecki, decided to make the difficult choice to illegally travel to the Warsaw Ghetto, where her husband&#8217;s two brothers lived.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was dangerous,&#8221; Levy noted, &#8220;because anyone could stop us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We wound up, and it&#8217;s not nice what I&#8217;m going to say, in a hellhole, because we wound up in the Warsaw Ghetto,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;To me it was hell on earth because the sights that I saw with my own eyes as a youngster were horrible sights. When you see death at an early age, it never goes away. The cruelty was unbelievable. The hunger was unbelievable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto were beyond bearable, she stated. The family had to share rooms with other families and disease was rampant. One day her mother was able to purchase a small loaf of bread with which to feed the entire family after having stood in line for hours. As she was walking away with the loaf, someone stole it away from her. &#8220;She was devastated because that meant two or three days without bread,&#8221; Levy recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Miraculously, Mark made his way to the ghetto and joined them there. &#8220;I always say I wouldn&#8217;t be sitting here, if he hadn&#8217;t come back,&#8221; she said.&nbsp; Both girls were suffering from malnutrition and were in very bad shape.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were in such bad shape that he was afraid to touch us and we were his daughters,&#8221; she exclaimed.<\/p>\n<p>He got them food and slowly restored them to good health with the bread and butter he brought with him.&nbsp; He knew that they would become ill were they to eat food unchecked, so he took deliberate pains to feed them small cubes of bread a little at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, after two years of living in the ghetto, Mark was able to secret everyone away in a garbage wagon late one night. Key to their survival, however, was to find someone to take them in who would not turn them in, Levy said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_42016\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42016\" class=\"wp-image-42016 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42016\" class=\"wp-image-42016 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/IMG_6400-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-42016\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Crane, left, introduces the panel on March 21, 2018. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>According to Levy, one of the factors that aided them in surviving the war was the fact that the family didn&#8217;t look Jewish, with her as the exception. &#8220;I was hiding most of the time,&#8221; she confessed.<\/p>\n<p>A Polish Catholic family took in the Skoreckis at great risk to themselves. Levy explained. Mark secured work&nbsp; in a lumber yard, where the owner built a small lodging to house the family, once a neighbor spotted Anne on a balcony one night. Using lumber from his work, her father constructed a small bureau where the two girls were able to sit&nbsp; during the day, keeping quiet and using a chamber pot when necessary.<\/p>\n<p>A question put to her constantly is how could two little girls stay so still and quiet as to not be discovered?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re frightened to death and your parents tell you you can&#8217;t do it, you just don&#8217;t do it,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>When the Allied bombing began to affect the Polish countryside, the Skoreckis were able to blend in with the crowd of people fleeing the onslaught and make their way to where they could find refuge, Levy told the crowd.&nbsp; Their liberators were not Americans, but Russians, which meant they were safe for the duration of the war.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, they were relocated to a displaced person&#8217;s camp, where the newest addition to the family, Adam, was born. Despite Lila and Anne&#8217;s desire to travel to Palestine, their parents elected to make passage to New Orleans and the rest was history.<\/p>\n<p>ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Levy%2C%20Spangenberg%20speak%20at%20WW2%20Museum%20event\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9257,1915,8790,8795,9259,521,626,8788,9258],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41984"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42018,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984\/revisions\/42018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}