Max Hirsch collection
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Max Hirsch collection
The Hirsch family lived and worked in Heinrich-Rollerstrasse, Berlin. They owned a family tailoring business there.
Max’s father was called Elchunen Hirsch & his mother was called Leah. He had three sisters, Frania and two others.
Early in 1939 Max Hirsch, who was then 28 years of age, managed to leave Germany and came to England, as an “apprentice” to his uncle, Abraham Wayne (formerly Wajnwurcel), with the intention of travelling on to the USA. Later on that year, this uncle was able to get Max’s sister, Frania Bader, and her son, Gerald, to emigrate from Germany and join Max in the UK. Frania & her son settled in Sheffield, where Frania had found employment. Her family ended up in Hull, where her descendants still live. These were the only members of Max’s family who were saved from the Holocaust.
Max lived with his uncle and uncle's wife Ida and son Joe and initially worked in the uncle’s tailoring business. When the war began in September, he was unable to leave for the USA and had to stay in the UK. Since he had a Polish passport on account of his parents’ origins and Polish nationality and being an ‘ally’, Max wanted to volunteer for service in the British army. However, he was approached on a few occasions by the Polish Army authorities in London, commanded by exiled Polish General Anders. As he could not speak Polish, having been born and schooled in Germany, Max refused the request. A further reason for his refusal was due to the appaling way the Poles had been and were still treating Jews.
In the interim, whilst awaiting the completion of his application to become a British citizen, Max worked as a tailor, making soldiers' uniforms. Finally, once naturalised and in possession of British citizenship, in 1943 he joined the British army Ordnance Corps, where he served loyally until the end of all hostilities and was demobilised in 1947.
It was in 1941, whilst they were both working in the production of UK soldiers' uniforms that Max got married to Manci (Margaret Freund), a Jewish lady who had come to England also in 1939 from Czechoslovakia. Her mother, Cornelia Mittelman, originated from Michalovce, her father, Leopold Freund, originated from Uzhhorod (now in the Ukraine). Manci’s older brother, Sandor (Alexander) and sister, Jolan, and a first cousin, Bondi (Andrew) were the only members of Manci’s family to survive the Holocaust. Sandor & Jolan remained in Czechoslovakia throughout World War II, moving around to escape detection. Bondi came to England in 1939, lived with Max & Manci Hirsch for a while, became a British citizen, joined the British army and after the war, emigrated to the USA, where he lived till his death at the age of 99. After the war, Jolan and her husband remained in Czechoslovakia, whilst Sandor took his family to live in Israel, where he planned to set up a business. Life in Israel did not suit him or his family, so they emigrated from there to Australia. Once there, he set up a successful business & lived there until his death at the age of 96. His descendants mainly live in the Sydney, NSW area, with the exception of one daughter who emigrated to the USA and lives in California.
Max Hirsch collection