Henry Hirschmann papers

Henry Hirschmann was born Heinz Hirschmann in Grossauheim, Germany, on August 5, 1920. His parents, Maier and Ida Hahn Hirschmann, had three sons: Heinz, Ludwig Paul (known as Paul), and Lothar Eliezer. The family ran a store selling household items and gifts. In 1934, the street on which the family lived, Hauptstrasse, was changed to Adolf Hitler Strasse. Hirschmann was arrested on Kristallnacht and sent to Buchenwald. Prior to his arrest, he had applied to join relatives in the United States and, after five months in Buchenwald, was released when his emigration papers were approved. Hirschmann's parents paid for his transportation to Stuttgart, where he boarded a ship, likely the Hansa, and went to live with his aunt and uncle, Leopold and Melly Stiefeld, in New York City. He worked for the Council of Jewish Woman and tried to earn money for his parents to emigrate. After Pearl Harbor, Hirschmann enlisted in the Army and began his training at a military camp on Long Island. His unit landed in Scotland in the spring of 1944 and were sent to France three weeks after D-Day, landing in St. Mer Eglise. The unit fought its way from northern France to the Rhine, crossed into Germany near Worms, and ended up in Munich. He was given permission to tour the Dachau concentration camp, and at the end of the war was in Salzburg. Since he had 88 points at the end of the war, Hirschmann did not have to continue on to Korea with his unit. Instead, hee joined the occupational government, working as a communications liaison between the United States and German groups. He created the first postage stamps in post-war Hesse. Hirschmann was discharged in Frankfurt as a staff sergeant. He learned that his parents and two brothers were deported to Minsk and he never learned any details regarding the circumstances of their deaths.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Henry Hirschmann

Henry Hirschmann donated the Henry Hirschmann papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013