Fritz Spiegl was born in Zurndorf on January 27th 1926. His parents Rudolf and Josefine owned a soda-water factory in Zurndorf, which his father had inherited. Besides this his father also ran an agricultural machinery business. Only the main Jewish festivities, Rosh Hashana and Jom Kippur were celebrated in his parent's house. Like all other Jewish children in Zurndorf, he also went to the evangelical primary school in Eisenstadt. After the taking of power by the Nazis in March 1938, his father was arrested and held in the provisional concentration camp Frauenkirchen, and later transferred to Vienna. The soda water factory was seized, the house raided, and after the family had been robbed of all their household- and valuable goods, they were also forced to leave Zurndorf. They found refuge at an aunt's house in Vienna. In the summer of 1938 the father was released. Initially Fritz' father wanted to go to Hungary and wait for further developments, but his mother was determined to leave the country. In the night of pogroms from 9/10th of November, the father was arrested again, but subsequently released. The mother succeeded in getting Fritz and his sister Hanny onto a Kindertransport to England. In the spring of 1939, Fritz and his parents left Austria for London. Fritz was only to see his parents again after many years in 1951, as they then managed to flee to Bolivia. In England Fritz was taken in by Captain Margesson, a minister in Chamberlain's cabinet. Fritz' career as a musician and author began at a London advertising firm, where he began to develop an interest in music, and was then accepted by the Royal Academy of Music. He was soon given a post as first flautist in the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also founder and conductor of the Liverpool Wind Ensemble and of "The Spieglers". He was also well known as a columnist and author of numerous articles in leading English newspapers, as well as through his own BBC radio programmes and many publications. Fritz Spiegl died in March 2003.