Cecilia Maas

1939 - 2025

Cecilia 'Cesia' Maas

February 4, 1939 - March 9, 2025

Cecilia Maas passed away peacefully on March 9th, surrounded by her family, at Citizens Care and Rehabilitation Center in Frederick, Maryland.

Born on February 4,1939, in Lvov, Poland, to Yitzchak and Rozalia Maas just before the outset of the Second World War, Cesia's early life was marked by profound loss and untold suffering. Both her parents and her older sister, Halina, met their fate in the Holocaust. Earlier, with great foresight, they had placed Cesia, with her blonde hair and Aryan looks, in hiding with a Polish Gentile woman, whom they had paid to pass off as her own child.

At the end of the war, Yeshayahu Drucker, known as 'The Captain', who went searching for stray, orphaned children, found Cesia and brought her to safety in the orphanage he'd established in Zabje, Katowice. From there, she was transported, along with hordes of other children, by the renowned Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld, on a rickety boat to England.

The children were placed in a hostel in Woodbury Down, North London. Cesia was the youngest and most traumatized of them all.

Dr. Schonfeld reached out to Dr. Herman Kugelmann and begged him to foster her. He and his wife, Ruth, agreed to do so.

In July 1946, they took her home. She was their first child.

Dr. Kugelmann so cherished Cesia's arrival in his family that he gave her two additional names, Beracha (Hebrew for blessing) and Miriam, after his beloved mother. Cesia was, he would always say, their 'blessing'.

Set on adopting her, he succeeded, against all odds, in getting a bill passed in Parliament for the first legal adoption in England of an unaccompanied refugee child.

In 1947, Cesia became the big sister to Daniela, followed four years later, by Ilana, in 1951.

In her twenties, Cecilia was hired as the nanny to the twins of David Blair, the principal dancer and partner to the legendary Margot Fonteyn at the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden. Cecilia was always given a front row seat in their sold-out performances.

In 1962, Cecilia married Robert Frederick Spiegel. At her specific request, Rabbi Dr. Schonfeld officiated at the ceremony. The young couple moved to Canons Park, Edgeware, where they were joined by Sally, a frisky, black poodle and where, before long, she devoted herself to mothering her four children, Amanda, Howard and the twins, Angela and Jeremy.

The family later immigrated to North America. They eventually settled in Frederick County, Maryland, which was an easy commute for Robert, an architect/designer, who worked in Washington, DC, for the US Navy, monitoring the outfitting of their ships with suitable furniture designs.

As the children grew, Cecilia worked as an ICU nurse and later opened her home to geriatric patients in need of private care. She provided them with dignity, compassion and comfort and treated them like family.

During the past two years, Cecilia became a much loved patient at Citizens, where her devoted children along with the dedicated staff hovered over her and catered to her every need. All who knew her, reveled in this resilient, feisty, quick- witted woman, who listened with rapt attention to all of their stories and who delighted them in her spontaneity, her fun-loving nature and her ever direct manner.

As her days drew to an end, she was surrounded at all times by her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. Her sister, Daniela and her husband, Rafe, would travel down from New York to see her and her close friends would come from near and far.

The continuous flow of visitors to her bedside, such a rarity in most nursing homes, where loneliness and abandonment are so often the norm, was a testament to the love she had given others throughout her life.

Cecilia leaves a legacy of resilience and compassion that she passed on to her children: Amanda Spiegel, Howard Spiegel (and his wife, Janice Peacock), the twins, Jeremy Spiegel and Angela Spiegel (and her husband, Mike Kearney), as well as her grandchildren, Crystal, ('the fifth kid'), whom Cecilia legally adopted at age 16 (and her husband, Will Stivers), Benjamin Jessurun (and his wife, Aliza Jessurun), Jessica (and her husband, Joey Bowers), Elizabeth, Sarah, Jason, Samantha, Amanda and Morghan, and her great-grandchildren, Cameron, Ella, Aiden, Yona, Gedalyah, Chance, Wyatt, Ethan, Cade, Jace, Zane, Addison and Camden.

As one orphaned at such a tender age, it was always Cecilia's dearest wish to have a large family. She lived to see her dream become a reality. Her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren were, by far, her greatest source of pride.

Cecilia Maas