Holocaust Survivor Dedicates Self to Others

Ann Spicer carefully arranged the framed, sepia-colored photographs of her family on the living-room table. This one is her brother, Joshua, at age 13. In that group photo over there, her mother wears the same dress she wore the last time Spicer saw her 57 years ago in Poland.

Spicer, seated on a sofa in her Studio City home on a recent Sunday evening, unfolded a letter-sized sheet of paper. The neatly typed Polish words at the top tersely summarized the defining experience in her life: “Birkenau,” “Auschwitz,” “1944,” “Block 2.”

“I don’t always remember what I did yesterday or today, but I remember the war--every day of it--like it was yesterday,” Spicer said.

The Holocaust survivor could easily be consumed with her past--the horrors of the concentration camp and the loss of her parents, two brothers and her sister--but Spicer has chosen instead to dedicate herself to helping those who need her.

“Ann is the most diligent, dedicated person I know,” said Masha Loen, a coordinator and lecturer for the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. “She’s a dear person and a valuable, wonderful friend, who has given so much to this museum and to the community.”

The tireless humanitarian, who served as a volunteer registrar at the museum for 16 years, is a docent at the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in Los Angeles. She also has served as a volunteer with the Organization for Educational Resources and Technological Training, or Women’s American ORT, for 40 years.

The group, which raises funds to support technical and vocational training for thousands of students worldwide, will honor Spicer and nine other local volunteers at its “Woman of Valor” luncheon Sunday in Westlake.

Spicer first heard about the educational organization in 1942, when she was confined to a Jewish ghetto in the Polish town of Radom. With schools disbanded and the town’s teachers arrested by the Nazis, she secretly attended ORT classes, where she learned dress design.

Learning a trade gave her a sense of purpose and the skills to work later, she said.

“Someone like me, who went through hell, I know what a trade can do,” Spicer said. “It is survival. It can save your life.”

After the war and six years in New York, Spicer and her businessman husband, Edward, settled in the Valley. She had no community ties, so she was delighted when a new friend invited her to join a local chapter of ORT.

Spicer went on to serve as the group’s secretary, president and as a delegate in 1993 to its national convention.

“Ann doesn’t sit back and just let things happen,” said Sondra Stahler, president of ORT’s Valley/Ventura region. “She has the ability to instill in us her positive attitude, and to drive us to serve mankind to the best of our ability.”

Despite her personal losses, she never lost her faith in humanity, Spicer said. Her commitment to serve the community, she said, stems from her gratitude that she survived when those around her perished.

“Because I was left without a family, I have always felt that it was my moral responsibility to go on, to help others,” Spicer said. “With the help I received, I came back to life, and I’m a grandmother now. Life really does go on.”