Heinrich Hirschberg

After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Galicia became Polish (1918/19). Hirschberg rejected the opportunity to become a Polish citizen and had himself discharged from the army by the Austrian Consulate in Berlin. He went to Harburg, where he met his future wife Rahel Gitel (later Gisela) Findling. In 1919, the two married and in the same year opened a wholesale business with haberdashery and fancy goods in Oldenburg at Stau 1. Later, they expanded the business to include brush and steel goods.

His brother-in-law ran a similar business in nearby Wilhelmshaven, which was later taken over by Heinrich's brother Leo Hirschberg. Both companies developed well, and soon Heinrich afforded himself a rented house on Schmalenstrasse in Oldenburg. Later he bought a large apartment building on Staugraben. Hirschberg became a member of the synagogue community council in Oldenburg and chairman of the local Zionist group. He had three children with his wife Gisela: Julius (born 1920), Paula (born 1922) and Hella (born 1931).

While his brother Leo held Polish citizenship, Heinrich Hirschberg was stateless. He applied several times for naturalization in order to obtain German citizenship for his family and himself. Even before they had children, Hirschberg launched the first attempt in 1920.

The Oldenburg magistrate found that he owned an impeccable business and was also in good financial standing, but because his length of residence was too short, naturalization could not be granted. Five years later, in 1925, Hirschberg again tried to obtain naturalization. At the Oldenburg city magistrate's office, the application was approved because, according to the expert opinion, the family was completely "grown up" with life in Germany and the children had been brought up in the "German spirit." It was mentioned in the expert opinion that Hirschberg was an educated man with an impeccable business, and owner of a three-family house. Nevertheless, the application was rejected by the Oldenburg Ministry of the Interior, since naturalization was usually only considered after living in Germany for 20 years.

After another two years, Hirschberg again tried to obtain naturalization by pointing to precedents. This time, both the Oldenburg City Magistrate and the Oldenburg Ministry of the Interior agreed.

In 1929, Hirschberg's family was granted German citizenship, which was a special case because otherwise Polish Jews who had immigrated after World War I were denied naturalization.

After Hirschberg's brother Leo and his family had already been forced to return to Poland because they possessed Polish citizenship, Heinrich Hirschberg was arrested on the morning of November 10, 1938. Since his daughters were ill at the time, his mother and children, as well as the maid, were spared the arrest.

First Hirschberg went to the homeless asylum and from there with about 40 men past the still burning synagogue, through the busy shopping streets, such as Haarenstraße, Lange Straße, Schloßplatz, Damm, to the prison. Finally, he was placed with the other men in small basement rooms of the prison, with three men per cell. The next morning, after some had recovered their belongings, Hirschberg wrote instructions on a piece of paper for his wife, mainly concerning their planned emigration. He had some of his emigration papers with him by this time. Around noon, the men were then led to the train station. On the way there, they were mobbed by youthful spokesmen. Under unacceptable conditions, the men were deported to Sachsenhausen via Bremen and Uelzen.

In his diary entries, Hirschberg describes his experiences during his time in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He describes in detail his arrival at the concentration camp, the way to the concentration camp and the time spent in the barracks. According to Hirschberg, the prisoners were beaten and hounded by the concentration camp guards. Many old and sick people died under the violence and were then "[...] thrown into an open farm wagon" (Hirschberg 1985, p. 148). During their time in Sachsenhausen, the prisoners were, according to Hirschberg, consistently tormented, insulted, and treated inhumanely. "But we were only cared for by the SS men, who teased us and told us that tomorrow we would all be shot. Another was interested in the civilian profession of the individual. For every profession that was named, he gave his comment. A merchant was with him a swindler; a doctor - a murderer; a lawyer - a shyster; a pharmacist - a poisoner; a writer - an agitator, etc." (ibid.). Heinrich goes on to describe in his diary that the prisoners had to wait for hours in the cold before they could take cold showers, have their hair shaved off, and be led to their barracks.

Heinrich describes his stay in great detail and in great detail. Through the help of an influential cousin, Heinrich was able to leave the Sachsenhausen concentration camp after two weeks.

Heinrich Hirschberg's diary entries end with page 24. He had written them down afterwards, as his psychiatrist had advised him to do so. After Heinrich had been released from Sachsenhausen, he was able to escape with his wife on a ship to New York because of an influential relative. Both arrived in the U.S. in mid-December 1938. His daughters were already there at that time. At first, the family moved to a suburb of New York; they lived there for about a year, later moving to Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The fate of his brother Leo and his family was different from that of Heinrich's family; they were killed in Poland.