Margot Lobree, née Hirschmann |

Margot Lobree, née Hirschmann

“I was one of the Kinder who never saw her mother again”

By Till Lieberz-Groß

Margot Hirschmann was rescued with a Kindertransport to England/UK in April 1939. After the death of their father, Lazarus Hirschmann, in 1938 the responsibility for the two children is entirely with their mother. Hedwig Hirschmann makes every effort to save at least the about 14-year-old Margot and her three years older brother Helmut Martin.

Hedwig herself will not get the chance to emigrate. In 1942 Hedwig Hirschmann will be deported to Izbica – from her last accommodation in Frankfurt, Am Tiergarten 28.

A hard farewell and a lost childhood

Margot Hirschmann was born in Frankfurt/Main on September, 25th 1925. Very early she loses her father, Lazarus Hirschmann. Her mother, Hedwig Hirschmann, is now solely responsible for her two children.

I was deprived of a good education and growing up under normal circumstances. I was deprived of learning who I am and how to be an adult in a safe environment. I had to figure out what was right and what was wrong. If I did wrong, there was no one to help me. In other words, I was deprived of a childhood. (Margot Lobree, Margot’s History, script – biographical notes of Margot Lobree, née Hirschmann)

The Hirschmann family – a family from Frankfurt

Margot moves quite a lot with her parents, but always stays in Frankfurt-Bockenheim. As a small child she lives in Juliusstraße with her parents; before she starts school the family moves to Falkstraße, closer to her primary school, Sophienschule, which she will not attend up to the end of her time of elementary schooling. She will be forced to change to Samson Raphael Hirsch Schule/Israelitische Volksschule close to the Frankfurt zoo around the end of 1933/beginning of 1934. Jewish children are no longer wanted in public schools. In 1932 the family moves to Rohmer Platz 27.

Margot’s parents

Margot’s mother, Hedwig Hirschmann, née Scheuer, was born in Hochweisel (today part of Butzbach/Wetteraukreis). She attends a girls’ high school, followed by a commercial school (Handelsschule) in Friedberg. For some time she works as a shop assistant in her father’s butchery. In 1921 she marries Lazarus Hirschmann.

Lazarus Hirschmann was born in Ober-Roden (today part of Rödermark/Kreis Offenbach) in 1889. He attends an elementary school (Volksschule), and after having attended a commercial school he starts working in the textile business of his father in Ober-Roden. He moves to Frankfurt where he lives until the beginning of World War II.

Lazarus Hirschmann becomes a soldier at the west front from 1914-1917; a gas poisoning makes him seriously ill for a long time. In 1919 Lazarus Hirschmann establishes a company together with his brother Markus: M.&L. Hirschmann, Papier- und Schreibwarenhandlung engros, a wholesale trade for stationary at Große Friedberger Straße in Frankfurt.

After having married Lazarus Hirschmann Hedwig joins the company as its accountant. Beside five other employees also Selma Hirschmann, wife of Markus Hirschmann, works with the company. The Hirschmanns are successful with their business; they can afford a delivery van and a private car with a chauffeur.

Saving the children

Experiences in England

Margot’s “guarantees“ for the passage were Mr and Ms Kaplan from London; Margot lived with them until the end of 1939. Margot learns English – as she came to England without any knowledge of English – until she is able to attend a school.

The beginning of World War II and the Blitz (the German bombing of British cities) cause the Kaplan family to leave London, but without the maid and Margot, who stay behind in London. This illustrates the attitude of the family concerning Margot who is permanently reminded that she has to be thankful having been taken into the family as a refugee: beside that she is exploited as a cheap help.

The long awaited visa for emigrating to relatives in the USA becomes invalid under the circumstances of the wartime. The salvation committee Bloomsbury House evacuates Margot to a boarding school in Epsom/ Surrey. However Margot can stay there only from December 1939 to January 1940, because the Kaplan family stops paying her school fees.

Margot finds an accommodation in a refugee home in Rusthall, close to Tunbridge Wells, where she is given access to schooling. After her 15th birthday Margot has to start working in a tailor shop in Tunbridge Wells beside her schooling. In April 1942 – Margot is now sixteen-and-a half years old – she moves back to London with a lady friend where she finds a job in a textile factory. There she works until her emigration to the USA.

Margot and her friend start living in London in a very poor, almost unbearable hostel but then the committee allows them to move to a little furnished flat in London NW2. They work for little money, everything is rationed, but they enjoy their lives in spite of their very limited possibilities.

Emigration to the USA

In April 1944 Margot can finally leave England towards the USA with her second visa. At last the emigration in stormy weather could take place due to her Aunt Sophie Meyer, née Hirschmann.
Margot is taken care of by her relatives and lives with them in New York until her marriage in 1948. Margot attends courses in shorthand and typewriting beside working.

“Don’t underestimate the power of the pen”

The almost unbelievable romance starts in England as a correspondence with a pen friend over the period of eight years – in a time before facebook or at least telephone calls! However: David was the best thing that ever happened to me, writes Margot after many satisfying years of marriage. (Margot Lobree, correspondence with Till Lieberz-Groß, April 2018; likewise headline of paragraph)

David Lobree lived in San Francisco, Margot lived in London in the beginning of their correspondence as penfriends. David and Margot meet for the first time in August 1948. The brothers of Hedwig Hirschmann pay for Margot’s passage from New York to San Francisco; after twelve years it is essential for them to see their niece again. I don’t know if I fell in love with the beautiful San Francisco skyline or the guy driving the car, but two days later he proposed, I said yes, and never looked back. (Margot Lobree, correspondence with Till Lieberz-Groß, April 2018)