Spiegel, a child survivor of three camps, has written a compelling and accessible memoir which, in his words, is an effort "to reach across the barriers of understanding." In this, he succeeds admirably, offering the reader not only his chilling story but also his postwar reflections on causes of the Shoah, and on contemporary Germany. Most importantly, Mr. Spiegel succinctly addresses the issues of bigotry, antisemitism and terrorism, and our ethical obligation to speak out against racial hatred. A must read!
Elizabeth R. Baer
Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Professor of Holocaust Studies for 2004
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

This memoir will be an important contribution to the study of the Holocaust. Each of these episodes will assist students in learning about the Holocaust and its effect on children. The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education endorses the reading of this memoir by middle and high school students.
Paul B. Winkler, Executive Director
The New Jersey Commission On Holocaust Education

Once the Acacias Bloomed is an extraordinary book, more than "simply" the memoir of a child survivor of the Holocaust who wants to record his experiences. It is a book of wonderful insight, quiet dignity, and great humanity. When you read his book, you will see that Fred Spiegel did more than survive the Holocaust. He triumphed over the inhumanity of the Nazis by overcoming his lost childhood, creating his own humanity, embracing love, bringing new life into this world, and holding on to hope for a better world. Once the Acacias Bloomed is a book to be read, savored, and shared. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Dr. Carol Rittner, R.S.M.
Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Every survivor memoir is as unique as the multitude of individual experiences during the Holocaust. Fred Spiegel is able to combine surprisingly detailed and vivid recollections from his "lost" childhood with the background and context learned after the fact. By clearly distinguishing between the two, Spiegel does a great service to his readers. I recommend this book to high school students, college students, and researchers alike.
Michael Hayse, Associate Professor of History
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

A well known-speaker among Jewish survivors, Dr.Zalman Grinberg, wrote shortly after the Shoah and World War II: "Hitler won the war against the European Jews. If we took revenge, we would descend into the lowest depths, the depths to which the German nation had fallen from 1933 to1945." Not to take revenge for suffered injustice is the central theme of the memoir by Fred Spiegel, a Holocaust survivor. The clarity and conciseness of the author in describing the most painful and moving moments of his life can be seen in all the details of this extraordinary book that the reader will have difficulty putting aside. The confrontation with the nightmares of his own childhood in the Shoah and his relationship to his native land, Germany - and with Germans - became the central mission of his educational work after a very active professional life and at the beginning of his retirement. Fred Spiegel does not remain in his past, connecting September 11, 2001 with his own life story. He ends with the urgent appeal: "We, the children of the Holocaust "have to teach the children that the future is theirs to create. First, we must work to stop this madness of racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism, so that the Holocaust and disasters like the terrorist attacks on September 11 will never happen again. Then when we defeat our common enemies: terrorism, racism, and fanaticism, we can face the future with confidence." One wishes this book by a real humanist a large international distribution and many sensitive readers.
Gottfried Wagner
Author of Twilight of the Wagners - the Unveiling of a family's Legacy and scholar of German-Jewish history and the Shoah.