Sister Dolore's Miracle Tears of joy are welling in Siegfried's eyes. His pride and emotions are centered on his sister Margot, now a Franciscan nun called Sister Dolore, who has accomplished a miracle that could never be discussed in terms of monetary value. "Ours was not a pleasant childhood," admits Siegfried. "There was no love there. My father was in World War II and ended up as a prisoner of war in Russia...he came back a different person and we never saw my father sober." Instead of parental hugs and support, Siegfried, Margot, and a brother endured constant abuse and harsh guarantees that none of them would ever amount to anything in life.

"When (Margot) was only nine-years-old I remember her telling me that she wanted to be a nun," he recalls. Both siblings were out of the household by age 17, Siegfried developing his magic on German cruise ships with Margot joining a convent/orphanage as a secretary. Yet her dream of becoming a nun never dwindled and she petitioned her mother superior with a most unusual request.

"When she phoned and said she was going to Romania, I said, 'Margot, you have everything you need in Germany.' But she said, 'The children in Germany have everything, while in Romania they have nothing,'" Siegfried remembers. "All I could say was, 'Margot, if you think that this is what you have to do, then go to Romania.'"

Weeks went by without word from his sister.

"Finally, I got a call from her and she couldn't say where she was (in Romania), but that it was in the middle of nowhere. She had walked about 20 miles just to find a phone in this little telegraph office, and the operator there was so excited to reach Las Vegas after trying for more than two hours. But I could tell that she was very happy and knew she had done the right thing."

Sister Dolore had become teacher, surrogate parent, and lifestyle counselor to 28 pre-teens who all occupied a ramshackle wooden structure that appeared ready to collapse if struck by a moderate wind.

Siegfried was eager to help, if quietly and with no desire to be recognized. He says he was shocked to learn Sister Dolore had to walk 20 miles to get to the nearest phone, and told her that he would be willing to buy a local neighbor's Land Rover and have it shipped to Eastern Europe. "But she didn't think it would look right for a nun to be driving a (costly) Land Rover, but later she called and said she had found a Volkswagen bus that would be the right thing and less ostentatious," he says with a soft smile. "That was all she needed to take the kids around."

The Romanian children who would otherwise be left to the streets presented another challenge. "A lot of them had learning problems and were difficult kids because of what had happened to them," adds Siegfried. "But she likes a challenge...like me, too," he notes.

Sister Dolore soon learned how to work with local and national Romanian officials and eventually became a welcome presence, whose altruistic motives were evident. But then Sister Dolore was diagnosed with cancer. She would have to return to Germany for treatments unavailable in Romania. She slowly prepared her young Romanian charges for her treatment departures that would keep her away for months at a time. But she always came back as promised.

Meanwhile, Siegfried and long-time stage partner Roy Horn decided to help out the children's cause by staging a benefit back in Siegfried's hometown. "All of Rosenheim was there and it was in many ways healing for me as well...I went back to being just Siegfried from Rosenheim. It truly was the most amazing night." Donations totaled about $1 million, providing the funds to construct a sturdy new home/teaching facility for Sister Dolore and her children.

"The amazing thing was that she looked like she was 17 again," says Siegfried, adding in grateful tones that his sister's cancer is now in remission. She continues to divide her time with the kids in Romania and assisting children at the German convent where she started.

The siblings remain in phone contact, and while Sister Dolore did visit Las Vegas some three years ago, she knows that this city is not her world when contrasted with the Romanian children whose lives she has delivered from darkness.

"Every few days she tells me the latest news about the kids and it reminds me that, when I have a bad day, it is nothing compared to what these children have gone through. I've learned how easy it is to take life for granted.

"Monetary success and celebrity mean very little," he stresses. "I mean, what is life if you own the world but your soul is injured?" Thus, Sister Dolore's voice is there with sound advice when Siegfried gets caught up in the stresses that come with being half of Las Vegas' most successful entertainment spectacle of all time.