Hirshovich (Hirschowitch, Girshovich) Serezha-Imerel (b. 23 July 1911, Riga) – chemical engineer.
Serezha-Imerel Hirshovich was born into the family of Solomon Hirshovich (1878–1941), a craftsman from Jelgava, and Ernestina Hirshovich (née Markushevich, 1883–1941) from Moscow. In 1915, the family fled as refugees to Vitebsk, where Serezha began attending Varvarina Gymnasium. His siblings Maria (1909), Amelia-Feiga (1906), and Iosif (1904) also studied there.
In 1918, the family moved to Moscow, and in 1920, as Latvian citizens, returned to Riga. Serezha continued his studies at the private Binz Gymnasium and later transferred to the Zaleman Gymnasium, graduating in 1928.
Due to financial difficulties, his brother Iosif emigrated to Brussels, Belgium, in 1928. On Iosif’s advice, Serezha also moved to Belgium, where he graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at Ghent University in 1932.
Upon returning to Riga, Serezha was conscripted into the Latvian Army in October 1932 and demobilised a year later. In 1933, he married Beila Lipman (b. 1912). From 1934, he served as a representative of the perfumery company Ambroco. Beila, having successfully passed the pharmacist's assistant exam, managed a pharmacy shop in the town of Krustpils. Their daughter Eleonora was born in 1935, and their son Alexander in 1937.At the outbreak of WWII, the family was in Krustpils. Serezha joined the Workers’ Militia and the Red Army. He evacuated his family, though his parents were killed during the journey. He was severely wounded in August 1941 near Dno Station and treated at a hospital in Yaroslavl. In 1942, he reunited with his wife and children in Sarapul, Udmurt ASSR.
In 1944, he was remobilised and fought on the 2nd Belorussian Front, participating in the liberation of Danzig and Szczecin. Serezha-Imerel Hirshovich received the Medal “For Courage” for crossing the Oder, the Medals “For Participation in the Patriotic War,” “20 Years of Victory over Germany,” “50 Years of the Soviet Army,” “25 Years of Victory over Germany,” and the Order of the Red Star.
After Riga’s liberation, the family returned from evacuation in 1944, and in 1945, Serezha rejoined them. In 1949, following advice from relatives, the family moved to Malakhovka, near Moscow, where he worked as a chemical plant foreman at the Tushino Municipal Combine, later at the Moscow Grease and Makeup Factory, and the Kalinin Industrial Combine. In 1953, they returned to Riga, where he worked in various cooperative and local industries until retiring in 1972.
His elder sister Amelia-Feiga married Joshua Parker, a U.S. citizen, in 1934 and moved to America. His sister Maria moved to Warsaw in 1930, married, and then relocated to Moscow, where she and her husband were repressed in 1937. She was released and fully rehabilitated in 1946 and later settled permanently in Warsaw.
His son Alexander Hirshovich emigrated with his family to Israel in 1975.
Family:
– Wife: Beila Hirshovich (née Lipman, b. 1912)
– Son: Alexander Hirshovich (b. 1937)
– Daughter: Eleonora Milovanova (née Hirshovich, b. 1935)
– Father:Solomon Hirshovich (1878–1941)
– Mother: Ernestina Hirshovich (née Markushevich, 1883–1941)
– Brother: Iosif Hirshovich (b. 1904)
– Sisters: Maria Konitz-Barkovska (née Hirshovich, b. 1909); Amelia-Feiga Parker (née Hirshovich, b. 1906)