I grew up believing the Holocaust had nothing to do with my family. But applying for a German passport sent me on an unexpected journey – from the banks of the Rhine to the gas chamber where my great-grandfather was murdered, uncovering an entire branch of my family that had been wiped out
The psychiatric hospital in Bernburg, where my great-grandfather Eberhard Hirsch was murdered. The place feels both tranquil and deeply unsettling. Credit: Neta Riskin
I grew up believing the Holocaust had nothing to do with my family. But applying for a German passport sent me on an unexpected journey – from the banks of the Rhine to the gas chamber where my great-grandfather was murdered, uncovering an entire branch of my family that had been wiped out
09:09 AM • July 10 2026 IDT
GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany – On March 11, 1942, Eberhard Hirsch stepped off a gray bus at the entrance to the psychiatric hospital in the town of Bernburg on the Saale River. Or perhaps he was carried off. Hirsch was 60 years old, likely too weak to walk on his own. The other men on the bus were strangers: people with mental illnesses or disabilities, Roma, political prisoners, common criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses and gay men. After checking in at reception desk, he was ordered to undress and underwent a brief medical examination. Hirsch did not sleep in that facility that night – or anywhere else.
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