Kurt Hirschfeld, a resident of Livonia, Michigan, died on June 20th, 2026 at the age of 101. Funeral services arranged by The Dorfman Chapel.

Location of Service:

Graveside

Date of Service:

Monday June 22nd, 2026

Time of Service:

information not yet available  

Interment at:

Adat Shalom Memorial Park Cemetery, 28500 6 Mile Rd, Livonia, Michigan

Officiant:

Rabbi Dovid Polter  

Shiva Information:

information not yet available  

Charitable contributions:

Jewish Family Service
6555 W. Maple Rd.
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
Phone: (248) 592-2339

or
The Zekelman Holocaust Memorial Center
28123 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
Phone: (248)553-2400  

Family Members:

Kurt Hirschfeld, age 101, was one of the last survivors of the Holocaust. Kurt was pre-deceased by his wife of 55 years, Wilma (also a survivor), and issurvived by his son,Jim, and Jim’s wife Donna.

Kurt was born in Berlin, Germany, May 17, 1925. Both of Kurt’s parents, as well as all four of his sisters, died at the hands of the Nazi’s. Kurt had an older brother, Martin, that escaped Germany and ended up raising a family in Argentina.

Kurt survived the Auschwitz death camp (01/1943 to 01/1945), and the death march back into Germany in January 1945. Kurt’s liberation came on Apri 10, 1945, as the U.S. Third Army, 6th Armored Division,under the command of General George Patton, approached the Buchenwald death camp. At the time of liberation, Kurt was 19 years old and weighed 67 pounds.

After several months of rehabilitation at the Deggendorf displaced persons (DP) camp in Bavaria, Kurt volunteered to work as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Army’s Counterintelligence Corps (CIC). Kurt’s spy work in the local towns led to the arrests of several high-ranking NAZI/SS officers in hiding. Prior to leaving for America in 1947, Kurt received a field promotion to Captain (non-commissioned) and oversaw a detention camp that housed prisoners detained by the CIC.

Kurt immigrated to the United States (New York City) in 1947, where he met up with Wilma Poculla, a friend he had first met in the Deggendorf DP Camp. Wilma was also from Berlin and had survived the Theresienstadt death camp in occupied Czechoslovakia. They married in 1948 and their marriage lasted until Wilma’s passing in 2003. They moved to Detroit in 1953, where Kurt found work in both auto and aerospace industries as a toolmaker and precision lathe hand.  

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