Eva Hirschel family papers

Hedwig Hirschel (born Hedwig Küchler) was born on 28 May 1902 in Glogau Schlesien, Germany (present-day Głogów, Poland) to Hirsch Leib and Elise (née Loebel) Küchler. She had at least two brothers, Theo (d. 1954) and Salo (1896-1939), and one sister, Felice (later Felice Jakob, 1891-1958). She became a typist in Glogau, and by 1923 had moved to Breslau, Germany (present-day Wrocław, Poland). Her daughter, Eva (1927-2015) was born in Breslau on 31 December 1927. Hedwig married Max Hirschel in 1939.

Max Hirschel was born on 16 July 1906 in Kępno, Province of Posen (Present-day Kępno, Poland) to Bernhard and Ernestine (née Lewkowitz) Hirschel. He worked as a butcher and farmer with his father and lived in Breslau by 1922. His son, Horst, was born on 17 December 1930. Horst’s mother, Margarete Schild (b. 1908) also lived in Breslau. From 19 February-23 October 1935 Max was imprisoned in a prison in Breslau and the Lichtenburg concentration camp. He was imprisoned again from 9 November-22 December 1938 in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

In May 1940 Hedwig, Max, Eva, and Horst fled Germany to Shanghai, China on the Italian ship the SS Conte Verde. While in Shanghai, Max worked in several butchers shops. Hedwig was sick during much of the war. Eva worked first as a governess for a French family, and then had several jobs in offices and factories. In October 1947 Eva and Hedwig immigrated to the United States on the SS General Gordon and settled in San Francisco, California. Max Left Shanghai in 1948 and went back to Germany. He stayed in the Wildflecken, Föhrenwald, and Camp Grohn displaced persons camps until August 1951 when he immigrated to the United States to Join Hedwig and Eva.

Hedwig’s brother, Salo, was sent to the Sachsenshausen concentration camp in 1939 and perished shortly after being released. Her sister Felice was a survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp.