Biography

About Hans Werner Hirsch

Hans Werner Hirsch was a son of Suszman Hirsch and Sara Kaufman. He was born in Wiesbaden and his residence was Schweinfurt. There he married Gerda Liselotte Reis from Furth on 5 February 1938, a daughter of Julius Reis and Hedwig Apfelbaum.

Hans Werner Hirsch and his wife Gerda Liselotte arrived in The Netherlands on 11 March 1938 and resided in Gouda at Joubertstraat 201. Also his parents-in-law came to Gouda in Holland and lived at A.G. de Vrijestraat 18.

On 26 September 1942 Hans Werner and his wife Gerda Liselotte ended up in Westerbork and already two days later, on 28 September, they have been deported to Auschwitz. Hans Werner seems to be forced to do slave labor and eventually lost his life on 31 January 1943 or succumbed by hardships. His parents-in-law have lost their lives in Bergen Belsen.

Hans Werner had two other brothers: his brother Salomon and his French wife have survived the Holocaust in Gouda. He passed away there in 1954 and his widow then returned to France. His brother Gustav as also his wife Claris Weil have been killed in the Shoah too: both have been killed in Auschwitz on 1 October 1942.

Regional Archive of Mid-Holland, genealogy/other sources/Jewish Families in Gouda 1750-1950/Suszman Hirsch; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, records of Hans Werner Hirsch and Gerda Liselotte Reis and the German Memorial of the victims of the prosecution of the Jews by the nazis (Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945)