Liliane Gurspan's History
Liliane was born to Oscar Gissinger and Frieda Shubert in Antwerp, Belgium on November 2, 1934. She was their first born and would become the eldest of their five children. She always wore the mantel of the eldest and protector of her siblings but never did so as an authority figure. She accepted her position in the family as caregiver.
In 1940, she and her mother and her two younger sisters Esther and Annette escaped from Europe on the last of two ships to leave Belgium simultaneously. We were told us that the other ship was sunk by the Nazis in their full view. Oscar had already left for the US in on September 2, 1939 (War had been declared on September 1st!) and sent affidavits to his family soon after he arrived.
The family initially lived in Newark, NJ for a short while with Freida's sister Sadie Shuminer and her family and then moved to Brooklyn for a few years. In 1944, the family moved to 85th street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Lily attended P.S. 9 through the 8th grade, Julia Richmond High School, and NYU for college. She worked in public relations and advertising for Lober Industries for several years before marrying Wally Gurspan in 1960. She met Wally while ice skating at Madison Square Garden.