Hans Hirschfeld

Who is Hans Hirschfeld?

Hans Hirschfeld was a German-Jewish hematologist.

He studied medicine at the University of Berlin, and following graduation began his residency at Moabit Hospital-Berlin. From 1910 he worked at the cancer institute of the Berlin-Charité. In 1919 he obtained his habilitation with a thesis on pernicious anemia, becoming a professor in 1922.

After enforcement of the Nazi edict- Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, Hirschfeld was forced into taking early leave, later losing his teaching licence and his right to practice medicine. In October 1942 he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he died on August 26, 1944.

Hirschfeld was the author of many publications in the fields of hematology and histology. He is known for his studies of blood diseases and his research on the pathology of the spleen. With hematologist Artur Pappenheim he conducted studies involving microscopic differentiation of blood cells.

He was an editor of several hematological journals, including the "Folia Haematologica". He was an early member of the Hämatologischen Gesellschaft, predecessor of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hämatologie und Onkologie