On 24 July 1933 Kirsch was arrested in Cottbus for illegal political activity. She was taken to the local SA premises and beaten with a stick and kicked in order to extract a confession. (Two of her assailants were identified after the end of the war and received long prison sentences.) Charges were laid on 29 November 1933 and on 10 April 1934 she was one of 25 Communists from Berlin, Cottbus and Forst whom the Berlin High Court sentenced. Kirsch was given a prison term of two years and nine months. She was taken to serve her sentence at the Women's Prison in Jauer. In September 1935, following a series of prisoner strikes, she and 45 other prisoners were charged with mutiny (or incitement to mutiny) but charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Kirsch was released from the prison in Jauer on 12 May 1936, but was required to report to a police station on a daily basis for more than a year after that.