Herbert and Kaethe Hirsch Family Collection

Herbert M. Hirsch was born on January 11, 1898 in Berlin to Bertha Baer Hirsch and Max Hirsch (?-November 26, 1928). He had one younger brother, Georg. In 1913, he took a commercial apprenticeship at the Orenstein & Koppel (O & K) Company. In 1914, he joined the Jewish rowing club, “Ivria.” During World War I, from 1916-1919, he served in the German army as a field artilleryman. After the war, he returned to O & K until 1921, when his father had a heart attack and forced him to take over the family firm, Max Hirsch & Co. Max Hirsch & Co. was a metal works factory and sold bakelite. In 1938, his mother and brother fled to the Netherlands. Bertha died in Bergen-Belsen in 1944, but his brother Georg survived the war. On September 15, 1938, Hirsch travelled to England on business and remained there as a refugee.

He was then interned on the Isle of Man starting on June 27, 1940 until 1941. Herbert married Kaethe Lewald in 1939. In London, Hirsch was chairman of the Hampstead Zion House and the Theodor Herzl Society and involved in the Association of Jewish Refugees. Herbert Hirsch died on October 28, 1982 in London.

Kaethe was born on May 1, 1902 in Berlin to Ernst Lewald (July 16, 1866-September 18, 1925) and Luise Felsenthal (December 20, 1877-1943?). Luise was deported in March 1943 and died in the Holocaust. Kaethe had a sister, Herta, who married Werner Eichwald and fled to Argentina. Kaethe married Joachim Lothar Sachs in 1924 and divorced him in 1928. In Berlin, she worked as a book binder and craftsman. After moving to England in 1939, she married Herbert and had two children, Robin, born in 1942 and Barbara, born in 1944. Kaethe died in June 1990 in London.

Robin Hirsch attended Oriel College at Oxford University from 1961-1964. He was a lecturer Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum in 1966 and briefly worked at the Sheffield Playhouse. In 1967, he received Fulbright and English Speaking Union Fellowship scholarships and began a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. in theater and literature in 1969 and moved to New York. He married Nancy Volkman in 1972. In July 1977, he opened the Cornelia Street Café with Charles McKenna and Raphaela Pivetta. In addition to running the Café, he also founded the New Works Project, a group devoted to the development of new theater productions. He married his second wife Leona Jaglom in 1984.