The Next Chapter Project: Warren Hirsch
From Mannheim to San Francisco
By Zoë Lyon
University High School
For most children, it is a given that their parents will provide for them until they are ready to leave the nest and provide for themselves. For Warren Hirsch (born Werner), this seemingly inevitable fact was entirely nullified upon Hitler’s rise to power.
Boyhood in Mannheim
As a young boy growing up in Mannheim, Germany, Warren lived comfortably with his family. He was an active member of his synagogue, singing in the children’s choir and developing a close relationship with the congregation’s cantor in the months leading up to his Bar Mitzvah. Warren worked hard in anticipation of his Bar Mitzvah, spending many hours with the cantor to learn trope and perfect his Torah chanting. He also had a repertoire of solos that he sang during services. His favorite was Ein Keloheinu, a traditional Jewish hymn that often closes the service.
Warren’s parents, Sally and Milly, and his older brother, Erwin, were all loving and encouraging, providing him with all the support he needed to be a confident young Jewish adult. Warren was anxious to finally become a son of the Torah and eager to keep up with his Jewish studies. In late March of 1935, he was called to the Torah for the first time, officially becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Warren’s strong talents in music, stemming from a lifelong love of piano and singing, led him to chant nearly 20 verses of Parsha Tazria.
For Warren, becoming a Bar Mitzvah was a turning point. But it was not only a turning point in becoming a Jewish man. A few years later, Warren’s life would change forever.
Thirteen years earlier, Warren had been born in Mannheim, located 12 miles from the famous university city of Heidelberg. Mannheim was an industrial hub with a large and active Jewish population. Sally Hirsch was a successful traveling textiles salesman, and, until 1933, raised his family without much financial constraint. The Hirsch family lived in a large apartment in the center of town, within walking distance of the Conservative Haupt Synagogue. The family was deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. They observed Shabbat every week, and Erwin aspired to become a cantor. Warren and Erwin also attended services throughout the week, and the family had a close relationship with the clergy of the synagogue. In 1928, at age 6, Warren entered kindergarten at Luisen Schule. He stayed in this school until 1932, when he went to Adolf Hitler Real Gymnasium. He then returned to Luisen Schule, from which he graduated in 1936. In addition to his academic education, Warren continued his music education, studying piano with Marthel Oppenheim. Music has remained one of Warren’s main passions, and he kept in touch with Ms. Oppenheim until she passed away.
The Rise of Anti-Semitism
In 1935, Hitler’s power slowly began encroaching upon the everyday lives of German Jews. Warren entered high school and was put in a special ninth-grade class for Jews. Sally’s business began to suffer, and Milly had to begin work to keep the family financially stable. She began preparing meals for people and rented out the extra rooms in the Hirsch family apartment to earn extra money. Erwin, having already completed high school, went on to seminary school to become a cantor. Experiencing prejudice for the first time, Warren was called “dirty Jew” by boys whom he had previously thought were his friends. More often than not, he came home from school with a bloody nose.
After learning that he would not be able to attend high school due to new laws imposed by the Nazis, Warren decided there was no future for himself and his family in Germany. Milly, who had lived in the United States for the first 14 years of her life, did not see leaving Germany as a viable option. Warren, however, heard about a transport that could take Jewish children to England, Holland, Australia, Palestine, or America. Warren begged his mother to let him sign up for the transport, but she and her husband were reluctant to let Warren leave. Sally, who served in World War I for Germany, thought that his status as a war veteran would protect him and his family from Nazi terror. Fortunately, at 15, Warren still fell within the acceptable age range for the transport program. Warren finally convinced his mother and father to let him apply for the transport. For his application, he needed a letter of recommendation from his teachers, and he had to demonstrate that he had good grades and a good moral character. Warren was lucky enough to have a Nazi teacher who supported him and was willing to write him a good letter for his application.
Leaving Germany
Within a few weeks of submitting his application, Warren was on his way to New York. After a long journey by train to Hamburg, Warren and the other children boarded a ship for New York. It took eight days to cross the Atlantic. Warren displayed immense courage in his decision to accept a spot in the transport. He was very sad to leave his family, since there was no guarantee that he would be reunited with them. There was also great uncertainty about what life would be like in America. In Germany, Warren and his family had heard stories of children who were taken to the United States and placed in orphanages—his greatest nightmare. Knowing no English, Warren also faced a huge language barrier in coming to the United States.
Homewood Terrace
After arriving in New York, Warren and six or seven other Jewish children traveled to Chicago, where they were put on various trains headed to cities throughout the country. Warren was headed to San Francisco, where, upon his arrival, he was met by a man and, to his dismay, taken to an orphanage called Homewood Terrace. Homewood Terrace, opened as the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home Society in 1872, served as a haven for many European Jewish children during the Holocaust.[1] In 1921, Homewood Terrace moved to a large campus on Ocean Avenue, where the institution set up a cottage-style facility for childcare. This cottage-style living arrangement suited Warren well, and the orphanage pleasantly surprised him. But that did not mean that he did not have many adjustments to make. Uprooted from his family, Warren longed to see his parents. He corresponded with them by mail until 1938, when the letters simply stopped coming. In 1938, Warren received sad news that his father and brother had been sent to Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria, Germany.
Warren also had to adjust to the American lifestyle, which differed significantly from the German. Particularly different were American meal habits, which proved a bit of culture shock for Warren. He no longer followed a strictly kosher diet, and after living with food rationing in Germany, he gained 26 pounds during his first six months in America.
After only a few days at the orphanage, Warren was placed in a foster home. The foster family was a German Jewish family, and Warren found some comfort in being able to eat German food and speak German. However, his foster mother’s relatives were coming from Germany, so there was no longer room for him to stay and he had to return to Homewood Terrace.
Back at Homewood Terrace, Warren developed a close relationship with Dr. Samuel Langer, the orphanage’s director. Warren served as Dr. Langer’s assistant, helping manage the younger children and doing small household chores for the orphanage. Warren continued his piano studies in San Francisco and was provided with many amenities at Homewood Terrace.
When he had first arrived in San Francisco, Warren attended Lowell High School. But after returning to Homewood Terrace, he transferred to Balboa High School. It was tough being in such a big American high school so soon, since he did not speak much English and he missed his family immensely. His transition was smoothed, however, by the fact that he was living with Dr. Langer in his private home following the death of Mrs. Langer. To this day, Warren treasures his relationship with Dr. Langer and recalls that he was a wonderful man and a great source of support.
Reuniting with Family
After Dr. Langer retired, however, Warren was moved to another foster home, and was forced again to transfer to Washington High School, from which he graduated in 1940. In 1939 and 1940, respectively, Warren’s brother and mother arrived in New York. Warren decided to enter pharmacy school and spent one year at San Francisco City College. In 1942, he visited his mother and brother in New York.
Warren was thrilled to be reunited with his family. It was the first time he had seen them since his departure in 1937. Warren was also happy to see that Erwin had accepted the job of cantor at Congregation Habonim, fulfilling his childhood dream. Unfortunately, Warren learned that his father was transported to Camp de Gurs on October 22, 1940, and then murdered in Auschwitz on September 4, 1942. The tragedy of his father’s death haunts him to this day.
Work and Love
Though he truly loved being with his mother and brother, Warren returned to San Francisco to continue his pharmacology studies at UCSF. While attending school, he lived with a Russian family, the Zimmermans, in the Richmond district. He grew very close to this family and enjoyed living with them very much. Best of all, Warren had a piano in his room in their house. Warren graduated from UCSF in 1944, and after a brief time in the United States Army, he began work as a pharmacist. In 1946, he bought his own store, becoming the youngest pharmacist in San Francisco to own and manage his own store.
Warren’s life had clearly come a long way since leaving Germany 10 years earlier, but little did Warren know that he was about to be reintroduced to the love of his life. In the fall of 1947, Warren received a call from Bianca Zwang, a girl whom he had known as a child in Mannheim. The Zwang family had relocated from Mannheim to Chicago, and Bianca had actually attended a wedding in New York at which Warren’s brother had been the officiating cantor. Erwin had previously called Warren to tell him that Bianca had turned out to be a lovely young woman. When Bianca came and visited Warren, it was love at first sight. Warren was smitten, and they were married in the summer of 1948. Bianca received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northwestern University and worked for the San Francisco Unified School District as a child psychologist. Warren and Bianca raised two children—son Clifford and daughter Felissa—in San Francisco and now have four grandchildren. The couple have traveled extensively, and have returned to Germany and Mannheim many times. They attend synagogue in San Francisco and love going to the opera and the symphony. Though the circumstances of his arrival in San Francisco were grim, Warren feels privileged to have been brought to this beautiful city, where he has lived a long and happy life.
Endnotes
[1] "Homewood Terrace Orphanage," Outside Lands-Western Neighborhoods Project, accessed February 22, 2011, last modified September 2, 2007, http://www.outsidelands.org/homewood-terrace.php.
Works Cited
Dobbs, Stephen Mark. "Jewish Community." Encyclopedia of San Francisco. Accessed March 9, 2011. Last modified 2010. http://www.sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/articles/j/jews3.htm.
Hirsch, Warren. Interview by author, San Francisco, February 2011.
"Homewood Terrace Orphanage." Outside Lands-Western Neighborhoods Project. Accessed February 22, 2011. Last modified September 2, 2007. http://www.outsidelands.org/homewood-terrace.php.
Kahn, Robert B. Reflections by Jewish Survivors from Mannheim. New York: Mannheim Reunion Committee, 1990.
"Mannheim, Germany, A Synagogue." Yad Vashem Digital Collections. Accessed March 9, 2011. Last modified 2010. http://collections.yadvashem.org/photosarchive/en-us/27814.html.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Gurs." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed March 9, 2011. Last modified January 6, 2011. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/ rticle.php?ModuleId=10005298#related.
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