Julius and Elisabeth Hirsch Family Collection

Julius Esaias Friedekomm (called "Ulli") Hirsch was born on June 22, 1916 in Hamburg, Germany, one of the five children (Hermann, Ludwig, Werner, Julius, and Edgar) of the physician Henri and Mina (née Frank) Hirsch who survived childhood. Mina Hirsch died on June 1, 1924, and the following year Henri Hirsch married Roberta Benjamin, which added two step-brothers (Alfred and Otto) to the family. The Hirsch family was Orthodox Jewish, and Julius Hirsch attended the Talmud Torah-Realschule and the Heinrich-Hertz-Schule.

In 1935 Henri Hirsch developed a way to use x-ray radiation to treat cancer, a discovery that brought him to the attention of Nazi authorities. He fled to his brother Sigmund (Sigi), who lived in Genova, Italy, and then went to Merano, Italy. Roberta Hirsch dissolved and closed the laboratory with the help of Ludwig and Werner Hirsch and then joined her husband in Merano with their sons Edgar and Otto. Julius and Alfred went to Switzerland to complete their studies.

In 1936, while visiting his uncle Willy Hirsch in Antwerp, Belgium, Julius Hirsch first met Elisabeth (Lisl) Schiff, who spent two years in Belgium. Elisabeth had been born on June 16, 1918 in Sobor, Hungary, daughter of Edmund and Hilda Schiff from Budapest.

In 1938 Henri Hirsch died in Merano. Werner Hirsch, who had gone to Palestine, joined the rest of the family in Merano the same year, where he died of cancer at the age of thirty. Meanwhile, Julius Hirsch studied carpentry and cabinetry in Merano and kept up voluminous correspondence with Elisabeth Schiff. His brothers Hermann and Ludwig Hirsch began investigating means of emigration for the family. Although Roberta Hirsch had been born in San Francisco, American consuls questioned the validity of her citizenship so the family began collecting other visas. A Bolivian consul in Trieste provided each family member with a visa but it was not recognized by American consuls. Then a Salvadorian consul, after learning that Roberta Hirsch’s father had been the largest coffee exporter in San Salvador, granted Roberta, Otto, Edgar, and Julius Hirsch visas and other official documentation for that country. Transit visas were granted by the United States for Otto, Roberta, and Edgar, but not for Julius who by then was no longer a minor. Julius Hirsch remained in Merano and dissolved the household, with plans to emigrate to San Salvador. Hermann Hirsch and his wife Rita went to Bolivia, while Ludwig Hirsch, his wife Hilde and their son went to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

While the Hirsches had prepared their emigration to the Americas, Elisabeth Schiff had rejoined her family in Budapest, Hungary, after two years in Belgium. The Schiffs had made plans to emigrate to England. Julius Hirsch changed his plans and decided to join his brother Alfred in England, where he was pursuing studies in photography. Alfred assisted Julius in procuring a student visa. In December 1939 Julius Hirsch and Elisabeth Schiff married in England. In 1940 Julius Hirsch was interned at the Hutchinson Internment Camp on the Isle of Man due to being German-born; by October 1941 he had been released.