Henry Hassenfeld

Henry Hassenfeld was one of three Polish-Jewish brothers — with Herman and Hillel — who founded Hassenfeld Brothers in Providence, Rhode Island, in late 1923, at first selling textile remnants. When the firm was incorporated in Rhode Island on 8 January 1926 he took charge of it, and when their pencil supplier began making pencil cases too they started making their own pencils rather than depend on him. Modelling clay and doctor-and-nurse kits were the first toys; by 1942 the company was principally a toymaker. He became chief executive on Hillel's death in 1943 and led the firm until his own in 1960, by which time it was a Disney licensee and had bought Mr. Potato Head. It is now Hasbro, the world's largest producer of board games. Immigrants from Ulanów in Poland, the Hassenfeld brothers spent the war years helping to rescue and employ fellow Jews from their home town: Jacob Klapper, a Holocaust survivor born in Ulanów, recalled being told on reaching the United States that Hassenfeld Brothers would employ any survivor from Ulanów, no questions asked.