Hedwig Hirschland

Hedwig HIRSCHLAND, née SELIGMANN: b. 5 Feb 1885, Köln - d. 24 Jan 1944, Genf

Particularly valuable family details thanks to:

Hirschland family genealogy, also Hirshland

http://www.thekesters.net/Genealogy/Hirschland.html

• Heinrich HIRSCHLAND (20 September 1876, Essen - 13 December 1932) & HEDWIG SELIGMANN (5 February 1885, Köln - 24 January 1944) Heinrich ran the company “Hirschland and Frankenstein”, a wholesale grain company.

And also ... thanks to a veritable treasure trove of family documents:

Guide to the Papers of the Hirschland Bank and Family 1819-1999

AR 25638 Processed by Dianne Ritchey

http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=3452390#subserI-4

From a small series of exchanges of correspondence with the close relative already in exile, Erich Otto GRÜNBAUM, it may be gleaned that:

- Margarete & Hans LANDSBERGER had already moved to the south of France before the summer of 1939.

- They had acquired and were running a small pension in Cagnes-sur-Mer called "La Maison Grise" on a street formerly known as Rue du Pérousin (this could either be the current "Montée du Perousin" or "Impasse du Pérousin").

- Margarete's widowed mother Hedwig HIRSCHLAND joined them there on 7 Aug 1939, having successfully fled Germany via the "alps" - presumably Switzerland - and with a view of imminently catching a ship leaving Marseille to - Shanghai?

- Hedwig expresses the view that this place is paradise and the couple have made a good choice, while Margarete points out that running the little pension kept them very busy.

(pip - May 2019)

Source of death gleaned directly from family papers.

In the Essen archives there are significant papers relating to claims for compensation/restitution by daughter Margarete following the war.

These include further details about Hedwig. How, despite her having come from such a comfortably placed family, she had found herself practically destitute and was dependent, during her stay in France, on the financial support of her equally struggling daughter. As Hedwig had arrived in Cagnes-sur-Mer too late to catch the ship to Shanghai, eventually it was arranged for her to return to Switzerland, where she was subsequently helped by a "relative" and where she died a few years later.

(pip - Oct 2019 & June 2021)