This is my great grandmother's German identification card and a couple photos of her. My great grandmother was Mascha Fuchs and she was born and lived in Hamburg Germany. The two pictures are of Mascha throughout her life. The one where she is in a bathing suit is from 1926 and she is 28 years old. The other picture is when she is around 5 or six years old in 1906 with her brother, Klaus Fuchs. The other picture is her german ID. In the ID Mascha is 28 years old and the year is 1926. Hitler rose to power in Germany around 1933 and my great grandparents and their daughter, Ingrid were still living there. My great grandparents feared that Ingrid would be forced to join Hitler youth and they had Jewish ties so they sent Ingrid to England at the age of 16. At the age of 18 Ingrid journeyed to America where she worked and started a life there and also met a man. They got married and started a family and had my dad, Peter Hirsch. Later on when Ingrid's mom, Mascha, passed away, a box of her old things were sent to Ingrid and in them was this German ID. My grandmother, Ingrid gave me this artifact to look at and research for a couple of months. This ID is special to my family because it helps us remember Mascha and how she survived and lived in Germany without giving in to Hitler or becoming affiliated with the Nazis.  It also helps us to remember how Ingrid left her home at a young age and made a life for herself in a new country. 

– Meghan Hirsch

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant