Fritz Hirsch papers

Contains documents, photographs and correspondence illustrating the experiences of Fritz Hirsch, a German Jewish theatre professional, his wife, Hilda and their sons Gerd Karl and Frank. Much of the collection concerns Fritz’s career as a performer and owner of a theatrical production company in Germany and the Netherlands, where he immigrated in 1928. Correspondence documents the extended family’s efforts in the United States to bring the Hirsch family out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Included are letters to consular officials from Fritz’s sister and brother-in-law Moritz and Emilie Eichtersheimer and from Victor Wagner. Also includes correspondence from the Hirsch family in the Netherlands and from Fritz in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. Fritz was deported to Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen and Gusen camps in Austria where he perished June 10, 1942. Hilda, Gerd and Frank were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where Hilda and Gerd perished May 7, 1944 and Frank perished in Auschwitz III Monowitz on January 17, 1945.