Isidor Fisch - Death

Death

Fisch died of tuberculosis in Leipzig, Germany on 29 March 1934. A multinational police investigation of Fisch conducted by the U.S and German police, in the aftermath of Hauptmann's arrest, discovered that he was so poor that his parents had to regularly send him money from his native Germany. He was constantly sick and always virtually starving to death. An interrogation of Fisch's brother, Pinkus Fisch, by the German police, revealed that Fisch had never made any mention of Hauptmann prior to his death. Moreover, Fisch's German acquaintances characterized him as a "harmless fur trader".

Mrs. Laura Urant, the daughter of Hauptmann's landlady, told American investigators that she had once met Fisch at a party in Hauptmann's apartment, after which she regularly saw him in Hauptmann's company. Speaking of Fisch, she said, "Fisch knew that he was plagued by an illness that would take many years to cure. Knowing that, I do not believe that if he had a great sum of money, he would have delayed getting the medical attention that he so badly needed."

A police investigation into Fisch's financial records also revealed that, in 1931, Fisch had borrowed several thousand dollars to embark in a pie-baking business that later went bankrupt. In April 1934, a few weeks after Fisch's death, Hauptmann wrote to his family advising them that Fisch had left certain articles in his care. In the letter, Hauptmann made no mention of a shoe box that Fisch had left behind.