About Hirschberger
Fritz Hirschberger
Born in Dresden, Germany, during the First World War to a Polish -Austrian citizen from Galizia and a Czech mother, both Jewish, Hirschherger received an education in art and the humanities there, before Hitler came to power.
In 1938 Hirschberger was arrested bv the Gestapo, the German Secret Police as an undesirable Polish, Jewish alien. He was given thirty minutes to pack and settle his affairs. The same night he was taken by the Gestapo to the German/Polish border and forced by machinegun armed SS men to cross the border into Poland.
In 1939 Hirschberger fought in the Polish Army against the invading Nazis. After the defeat of Poland the Nazis and Communist Soviets divided Poland. Hirschberger was left in the Soviet occupied zone. There he was arrested once again, this time by the NKVD the Soviet Secret Police. Without any legal procedure he was sentenced to twenty years in a slave labor camp when the NKVD discovered his membership in the militant right wing Zionist organization the Betar. Subsequently he was shipped to a slave labor camp in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Komi, behind the Polar Circle. In 1941 the Nazis attacked their former ally Soviet Russia. As a result Russia joined the Allies, but one of the conditions was, that the Soviets had to release all the Poles. Hirschberger, set free without any means, made his way across Russia to the city of Alma Ata in Kazakhistan. There the Poles liberated from a variety of camps from all over Russia, were to form the Second Free Polish Corps. When Hirschberger arrived at the recruiting camp, he was told to return in a few months since the equipment for the future Polish Army had not yet arrived from Great Britain. To survive the waiting period Hirschberger worked as a cotton picker, blacksmith, and camel driver. In due time he enlisted and his unit was shipped to Palestine. After being equipped, his unit was moved to North Africa to fight against Rommel's forces. Later, he participated in the invasion of Italy.
After the war Hirschberger continued his art education in London before coming to the United States. In New York he worked with artists teaching at the New School on 12th Street. In 1984 he moved to San Francisco, where he resides now. His previous work has been exhibited on the East Coast. His present Sur-Rational paintings have been exhibited in one man shows at:
The City Museum of Dresden, Germany Under Auspices of the Archdiocese of Dresden, The Terezin State Museum, Czech Republic, Sonoma State University, CA., The Heritage Gallery, Lose Angeles, CA., The Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA., The University of Oregon, Eugene, OR., Bakersfield College, CA., Trojanowska Gallery, San Francisco, CA., Luther College, IA., Athenaeum of Ohio Catholic Seminary, Penn State University, Pittsburgh Holocaust Center, University of Puget Sound, Calvin College, University of Minnesota, St. Cloud State University, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of San Francisco, Florida Holocaust Museum.