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Diane
Tuckman and Cecile Spiegel fled religious persecution with WWII conflicts at
their heels. Hiding in plain sight, Cecile eluded the Nazis in France. Diane came
of age in France, far from her childhood home in Egypt. Their odysseys
intersect in America in this dual memoir of immigration, faith, and resilience.
List of contents
Introduction
1. Beginnings / Diane
2. Beginnings / Cecile
3. Winds of Change / Diane
4. Winds of Change / Cecile
5. On the Run, with Children / Cecile
6. New Realities / Diane
7. Coming to America / Cecile
8. Never Forget / Cecile
9. American Odyssey / Diane and Cecil
10. Reflections on Immigration
11. Lekh-L’kha / Diane
12. Anatomy of a Friendship / Cecile and Diane
13. Second Acts
Epilogue / Diane
Postscript and Acknowledgments
Timeline
About the author
Cecile Spiegel
(1915-2010) was born in Nuremberg, Germany, the only child of loving parents.
She escaped to France amid rising Nazi persecution. She survived WWII hidden in
the countryside with aid from French Resistance members. Cecile worked for American
forces in post-war France before immigrating to America, where she became a
French teacher.
Diane
Tuckman was born in 1935 in Heliopolis, Egypt. At the start of the Arab-Israel
war in 1948, her family fled mounting oppression. They settled in France, where
Diane translated for American forces before moving to the United States. A
noted silk painter, she is a founder of Silk Painters International (SPIN).
Summary
Diane
Tuckman and Cecile Spiegel fled religious persecution with WWII conflicts at
their heels. Separately, from Egypt and from Germany, each leaped continents,
cultures, and languages as a refugee before finding a new home in the United
States. Hiding in plain sight in France, Cecile eluded capture by the Nazis, but
lost many dear to her. Diane came of age there, far from the Mediterranean
idyll of her childhood in Egypt. They relied on family, faith, and resilience to
overcome the otherness felt by displaced peoples. As they dictated their memoirs
to one another, Diane and Cecile discovered the anatomy of their friendship in
their parallel odysseys and the optimism of 20th-century American womanhood.
