Biographical/Historical Information

Celine Spier was the daughter of Joseph Spier, who was a fellow artist and friend of Norbert Troller's in Theresienstadt.

Celine (Dutch spelling: Celien) Spier was born in the Netherlands on May 29, 1929 to Dutch artist Jo Spier and his wife Tineke. She also had two brothers, Peter and Tom. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, Celine was no longer permitted to attend the Amsterdam Lyceum and instead was sent to the Joodse Lyceum. There were two grade seven classes; Anne Frank was in the other one. In 1943, together with the rest of her family, Celine was sent to Theresienstadt, where they were imprisoned for over two years. The family survived, and Celine met her future husband Maximilien Polak when they were both students at the University of Leiden's law school. Celine and her family moved to the United States, and Maximilien followed after completing his studies. The couple moved to Montreal, where they had three children: Michael, Monique and Carolyn. Celine was known for her terrific, often sharp sense of humour. When she and Maximilien visited the Theresienstadt memorial in the 1980s, she told the people at the ticket window, "Last time you let me in for free." Celine kept the story of her experience at Theresienstadt secret for more than 60 years. She only broke her silence when her daughter Monique was doing the research for a novel based on what had happened to Celine during the Holocaust. That book, published in 2008 and translated into many other languages, is called What World Is Left (Orca Book Publishers). Celine died peacefully in 2017 at the age of 88.

Born in Bruenn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czechoslovakia) in 1900, Norbert Troller served as a soldier in World War I, spending time as a prisoner-of-war in Italy. After the war he studied architecture in Brno and Vienna and worked as an architect in Brno until the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. He was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942, where he worked as an architect for the Jewish self-adminstration of the camp, and produced works of art as well. In 1944 he was imprisoned by the Gestapo, and was sent to Auschwitz later that year. After liberation, he lived briefly in Cracow, and then reopened his architectural business in Prague and Brno. He emigrated to the United States in 1948 and worked for the National Jewish Welfare Board in New York designing Jewish community centers, before opening his own practice. He died in 1984.

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Citation

Troller, Norbert: Portrait of Celine Spier, Leo Baeck Institute, 84.562.