[4] Hirsch studied history at the University of Heidelberg where he graduated under German historian and political journalist, Hermann Oncken in 1924.
[6] Following the rise of Nazism, Hirsch went into exile in America, and completed a librarian degree at Columbia University in 1936.
Hirsch's article not only revealed the judge's Jewish identity, but alleged that he had converted to Protestantism to further his judicial career.
[6] According to a dispatch issued by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency regarding the intriguing proceedings: There was something of a sensation in court when it came out in the course of the proceedings that Judge Soelling is the son of the lay head of the Romberg Jewish Community, and that he had held over his baptism until after the death of a rich uncle who was a strictly observant Jew, so that he should not be cut out of his will, and that he had been baptised only after he had received the legacy.
[6]Justice Soelling was eventually disbarred and forbidden to practice law in Germany as a result of the Nazis' anti-Semitic reforms of 1933.