Herman Hassenfeld

Herman Hassenfeld was one of three Polish-Jewish brothers — with Hillel and Henry — who founded Hassenfeld Brothers in Providence, Rhode Island, in late 1923. The firm began by selling textile remnants, expanded over two decades into pencil cases, school supplies and pencils of its own making, and by 1942 was principally a toy company; it is now Hasbro, the world's largest producer of board games, and the maker of Mr. Potato Head, G.I. Joe, Monopoly and Transformers. Of the three brothers Herman is the least documented — the surviving record of the founding names him without describing his individual part. 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.