United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Julius Hirsch (1916-1996) was born on 22 June 1916 in Hamburg, Germany. one of five children of Henri and Mina Hirsch. Henri Hirsch was a physician who pioneered the treatment of cancer with with x-ray radiation, and in 1935, he fled to Merano, Italy, while his family shut down his laboratory in Germany and later joined him there. Julius went to Switzerland to study, and while on a trip to visit his uncle in Antwerp, Belgium, he met Elisabeth Schiff, who was originally from Budapest, Hungary, and after his return to Switzerland, the two kept in touch by correspondence. Following the death of Henri Hisch in Merano in 1938, the remaining family members sought to emigrate from Europe, with some of Julius' brothers opting to immigrate to Bolivia and Argentina. Julius originally planned to immigrate to El Salvador, but after learning that Elisabeth Schiff was moving to England, opted instead to join his brother Alfred, who had earlier moved there as well. In December 1939, Elisabeth Schiff and Julius Hirsch were married in England, but some months later, he was interned by the British as an enemy-alien, and sent to the Hutchinson Interment Camp on the Isle of Man, where he remained until his release in October 1941. [biography adapted from that used in the finding aid for the Julius and Elisabeth Hirsch papers, Leo Baeck Institute, New York].
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Manuscript drafts of song and poetry texts, mostly written for Jewish holidays, and used by various members of the family of Julius Hirsch, originally of Hamburg, Germany, circa 1935-1940. Some of the poetry may have been written while Hirsch was interned as an enemy alien in Great Britain in 1940-1941 at the Hutchinson camp on the Isle of Man, but much of it dates from earlier years. Collection also includes a printed sheet with lyrics and music of the"Hutchinson Camp Song" written by internees at the Hutchinson camp, 1940, as well as newspaper clippings from British newspapers, circa early 1940s, regarding Jews in Britain.
Julius Hirsch family papers