Alfred Hirsch

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/282479/fredy-hirs...

http://www.holocaust.cz/en/history/people/alfred-fredy-hirsch-2/

&: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredy_Hirsch

ALFRED (FREDY) HIRSCH

(11. 2. 1916 AACHEN - 8. 3. 1944 AUSCHWITZ)

The name of Fredy Hirsch is inseparably connected with the education of children and young people in the Terezín ghetto, and finally in the family camp at Birkenau. In particular, the children's block, established on Hirsch's initiative in the BIIb section of the Birkenau camp, was a remarkable attempt to create a small oasis within the death camp. Its main purpose was to ensure that Auschwitz's youngest prisoners had, at least for a short while, a more tolerable environment in which they would be isolated from the tragic reality around them.

Hirsch's strong ties to scouting and Zionist ideals began to be formed in his early childhood in Aachen. As boys, he and his brother Paul, two years his elder, were active in the leadership of the Jüdischer Pfadfinderbund Deutschland (JPD, the German Jewish scouting movement) which was close to the Jewish sporting organisation Maccabi Hatzair.

After Hitler came to power, the Hirsch family went different ways. Fredy's brother Paul and his mother Olga, together with her new husband (Fredy's father had died in 1926) went to Bolivia, while Fredy, an ardent Zionist, remained in Germany. He was only willing to seek a new home if it was in Palestine. In 1933 he left Aachen, working for some time as the head of the JPD in Düsseldorf. The following year he moved to Frankfurt am Main, and then in 1935 he emigrated to Prague, like many other German Jews.

Those who knew Fredy Hirsch remember him as he can also be seen in his photos - a well-built, attractive young man with the upright posture of an athlete, his hair elegantly slicked back. On arriving in Czechoslovakia he lived first in Ostrava , then in Brno and from 1939 in Prague. He devoted himself to work with young people, sports training and preparing halutzim (pioneers; link in Czech) for aliya (link in Czech) to the Promised Land. Until 1940 he organised summer scout camps near the village of Bezpráví on the Orlice river. In Prague, Hirsch led a group of boys aged 12-14, called Havlaga. In October 1939, at the last minute, the group managed to leave for Denmark, a year later moving to Palestine.

Hirsch's name is also connected with the Hagibor playground in the Strašnice district of Prague. Following a number of anti-Jewish decrees and bans issued under the Protectorate, the playground became one of the few places where Jewish children were still allowed to play in the open air and do sport. Hirsch organised sports, competitions, camps and theatre productions for hundreds of children there, spreading among them the ideals of teamwork, responsibility and physical prowess.

Fredy Hirsch arrived in Terezín on 4 December 1941 as part of a team called the Aufbaukommando II, consisting of Hirsch and 22 other employees of the Jewish community who had been given the task of organising life in the newly-created ghetto. From the start of the ghetto's existence, special rooms were created for children, who lived apart from their parents. Later they were transformed into the heims - around eleven children's houses where a number of carers and teachers devoted themselves to the children's semi-legal education. Fredy Hirsch, Egon Redlich and Bedřich Prager were in charge of looking after the young people. Hirsch and the other carers tried to improve the living conditions of the children in the ghetto in whatever way they could. Hirsch insisted that the children must exercise every day and pay attention to personal hygiene in order to maintain their psychological and physical condition, for in this lay their only hope of survival. The fact that Hirsch came from Germany, and his self-confident manner, meant that some SS members had a certain degree of respect for him. He thus managed to gain space for a playground, where in May 1943 the Terezín Maccabi Games took place. Hirsch also gained the ability to have individuals taken off the planned transports to the east, and often made use of this to benefit children.

In summer 1943 a transport of 1,200 Jewish children from the liquidated ghetto in Białystok arrived in Terezín. They were kept isolated from the other Jews in Terezín, and a strict ban on communication with them was announced. Nevertheless, Fredy Hirsch managed to make contact with their carer. He was caught, and as punishment was included on the transport that left for the family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 6 September with 5,000 prisoners. The 5,000 deportees, mostly Czech Jews, included approximately 300 children aged 15 and under. It was very unusual for there to be any children at Birkenau at that time, since most of them were murdered as soon as the transport arrived. In addition to the Terezín family camp, however, there were also children in the gypsy camp. Thanks to Hirsch's ability to negotiate with the Nazi commanders (he always took care to look well-presented and have clean boots) he managed to reserve one of the wooden buildings in the family camp for the children's block. He then gave up his advantageous position as a lagerkapo and became the head of the children's block.

The block was furnished differently from the most of the other prisoners' buildings at Birkenau. Instead of three-level bunk beds it had little tables at which the children sat - since the children only spent the day here, returning to their families at night. The walls inside the building were decorated with pictures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Eskimos, flowers and fairytale characters. The children spent most of the day in block 31. They ate here, and in addition to soup, other food was obtained for them from parcels that had arrived at the camp but whose addressees were already dead. Although the children naturally suffered from hunger, none of them died of malnutrition before the prisoners from the September transport were murdered in March. The children were also protected from the otherwise omnipresent reign of terror of the SS officials. Other positive features of the children's block were that the daily roll-calls were short and took place within the building itself, rather than taking place outside and lasting several hours - particularly cruel in frost and rain - as was the case with the adult prisoners.

Children in the block had secret, improvised lessons, taught in small groups according to age. If an SS patrol was approaching, the lessons quickly turned into games, or the children started to sing German songs, which were allowed. For the carers, too, working in the children's block had a certain advantage: an intellectual environment, and under a roof too, which made it easier for them to keep themselves in relatively good psychological and physical condition. The teachers would tell the children the content of books that they remembered. They taught them geography, history, played games with them and sang with them. In late 1943 and early 1944 the children also rehearsed and performed a production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was attended by SS men, including Dr. Mengele, who applauded the children enthusiastically, had them sit on his knee and asked them to call him Uncle.

After the arrival of the December transports there were around 500 children in the block, and Hirsch managed to gain a further building for the children.

As the September transport neared the end of its six-month quarantine period towards the end of February 1944, members of the camp's resistance movement contacted Fredy Hirsch. They knew that the word Sonderbehandlung, written on the identity card of each prisoner in the family camp, actually meant death in the gas chamber. In Fredy Hirsch, who enjoyed natural authority among the prisoners, they saw a potential leader of the planned uprising. Hirsch found himself facing a difficult decision: a rebellion would mean the chance to kill several SS men and a slim chance of possible escape for a handful of prisoners, but also certain death for the great majority of prisoners in the family camp, and without a doubt, certain death for all the children. On the morning of 8 March he discussed the issue again with Rudolf Vrba, who was connected to the Auschwitz resistance movement. Vrba visited him and told him there was no doubt that the whole transport was heading for the gas chambers. Hirsch asked for an hour to decide. An hour later, Vrba found him unconscious. A doctor stated that he had taken an overdose of tranquillizers. That evening, Fredy Hirsch's body was burned in the Birkenau crematorium, together with the remains of the 3,792 murdered prisoners of the Terezín family camp.

There is still speculation as to what happened in the final minutes of his life. It is not entirely clear how he managed to obtain a fatal dose of medicine, nor whether it was truly suicide. Before his death, Hirsch appointed his successors as the heads of the children's block - Seppl Lichtenstern and Jan Brammer.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredy_Hirsch

Fredy Hirsch, geboren als Alfred Hirsch, (* 11. Februar 1916 in Aachen; † 8. März 1944 im KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau) war ein deutscher Funktionär des Jüdischen Pfadfinderbundes und jüdischer Häftling im Vernichtungs- und Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau, der sich dort für die Erziehung und das Überleben von tschechischen jüdischen Kindern aus dem Ghetto Theresienstadt einsetzte.[1]

Fredy Hirsch, Sohn des Metzgers und Lebensmittelgroßhändlers Heinrich Hirsch (* in Aachen) und seiner Frau Olga geborene Heinemann (* in Grevenbroich), wuchs in Aachen auf. 1926 starb sein Vater nach langer Krankheit. Zusammen mit dem älteren Bruder Paul beteiligte sich Fredy Hirsch in der jüdischen Pfadfinderbewegung, die auch zionistische Ziele anstrebte. Von 1926 bis 1931 besuchte er das damalige Hindenburg-Schule, eine Oberrealschule mit Realgymnasium, ihr Nachfolger ist seit seit 1945 das Couven-Gymnasium. [1] Ab 1933 leitete er den Jüdischen Pfadfinderbund Deutschland in Düsseldorf.

Sein Bruder Paul studierte am Jüdisch-Theologischen Seminar in Breslau. Er emigrierte 1933 mit der Mutter nach Bolivien, wo er als Rabbiner arbeitete, in den 1950er Jahren wurde er Rabbiner in Buenos Aires, Argentinien. Fredy Hirsch wollte - so heißt es - 1933 nicht mit nach Bolivien emigrieren. [2]

Alfred Hirsch verließ 1934 Düsseldorf und zog nach Frankfurt am Main und von dort im November 1935 ins Exil in die Tschechoslowakei. Dort lebte er in Prag, Brno und Ostrava (Mähren). Er arbeitete an der Hachscharah mit, den Vorbereitungskursen auf die Auswanderung nach Palästina. Von dort zog er zurück nach Prag. Am 24. November 1941 wurden 324 jüdische Männer, das sogenannte Aufbaukommando, nach Terezín (deutsch Theresienstadt) deportiert, um dort beim Ausbau des Ghettos durch die SS eingesetzt zu werden. Zusätzlich kamen 1000 Männer als zweites Aufbaukommando nach Theresienstadt. Hirsch gehörte dem 24-köpfigen „Stab“ der Prager Jüdischen Gemeinde an, der ab 4. Dezember 1941 die organisatorische Struktur des Ghettos aufbauen musste.[1] Im Rahmen der begrenzten und strikt überwachten Theresienstädter jüdischen Selbstverwaltung engagierte sich Hirsch in der Jugendfürsorge für die gefangenen jüdischen Kinder und bekleidete dort eine leitende Funktion. Hirsch organisierte unter anderem Sport- und Kulturveranstaltungen für die gefangenen Kinder.

Von „Theresienstadt“ wurde er am 6. September 1943 gemeinsam mit anderen Häftlingen mit einem Transport ins Vernichtungslager Auschwitz-Birkenau deportiert. Im Block 31 (Kinderblock) innerhalb des um diese besondere Häftlingsgruppe herum abgeschotteten Lagerbereichs Familienlager Theresienstadt (B II B) erreichte er etwas verbesserte Verpflegungs- und Hygienebedingungen für die gefangenen Kinder und Erzieherinnen. Kurz bevor der erste Transport des Familienlagers von der SS zur Vergasung geschickt wurde, wurde Fredy Hirsch tot aufgefunden. Nach Diagnose eines Häftlingsarztes hatte er sich offensichtlich durch eine Überdosis Barbiturate das Leben genommen. Nach Recherchen des Journalisten Dirk Kämper bestehen allerdings inzwischen erhebliche Zweifel an der Selbstmordthese. [3]

In Theresienstadt erinnert eine Gedenktafel im Garten des ehemaligen Knabenheims L 417 an Fredy Hirsch.

Stolperstein vor Hirschs ehemaligen Wohnort Um Fredy Hirschs Leben zu gedenken und die Menschen an die Taten der Nazis in der Kriegszeit zu erinnern, wurde Fredy Hirsch zu Ehren an seinem ehemaligen Wohnort in Aachen in der Richardstraße 7 ein Stolperstein gesetzt. [4] Fredy Hirsch war eine zentrale Figur in der ZDF-Dokumentation "Mit dem Mut der Verzweiflung". [5] Der im Jahre 2013 auf dem Grundstück Richardstraße 7 gegründete Gemeinschaftsgarten der Initiative Urbane Gemeinschaftsgärten Aachen e.V. erhielt zur Erinnerung an Fredy Hirsch den Namen HirschGrün. Am 12. Februar 2016 - an seinem hundertsten Geburtstag - veranstaltete das Aachener Couven-Gymnasium einen Festakt für Fredy Hirsch, in der die Schulmensa in Fredy-Hirsch-Forum umbenannt wurde. Vier Zeitzeugen aus Tschechien und Israel , die den Geehrten gekannt hatten und ihm ihr Überleben in Auschwitz verdankten, waren Ehrengäste wie auch eine Nichte von Fredy Hirsch. Literatur. Shimon Adler: The Children’s Block in the Family Camp at Birkenau, in: Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance. XXIV. Jerusalem 1994, S. 281-315. (engl.) Dirk Kämper: Fredy Hirsch und die Kinder des Holocaust. Zürich, Orell Füssli Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-280-05588-5 Irmgard Klönne: Gut Winkel, die schützende Insel: Hachschara 1933-1941. Claude Lanzmann: Shoah. Mit e. Vorw. von Simone de Beauvoir. Düsseldorf : Claassen, 2. Aufl. 1986, S. 206-217. Hermann Langbein: Menschen in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2. Lucie Ondrichová: Fredy Hirsch - Von Aachen über Düsseldorf und Frankfurt am Main durch Theresienstadt nach Auschwitz-Birkenau - Eine jüdische Biographie 1916-1944. Übersetzung aus dem Tschechischen von Astrid Prackatzsch. Konstanz, Hartung-Gorre-Verlag, 2000, 104 S. (Rezension Raimund Kemper, Dirmstein, für das Fritz Bauer Institut, 2001) Rudolf M. Wlaschek: Juden in Böhmen. Band 66 des Collegiums Carolinum München. 1997 - 311 Seiten. ISBN 3486562835; hier S. 114 Film

ZDF-Dokumentation: Mit dem Mut der Verzweiflung. 70 Jahre nach Auschwitz, Sendung vom 27. Januar 2015. Der Film schildert das Schicksal von Menschen, die trotz ständiger Todesgefahr in der Hölle der Mordmaschinerie Mut bewiesen, ihre Menschlichkeit bewahrten, sich für andere opferten, moderiert von Hugo Egon Balder.

https://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/en1465767

• Hirsch, Alfred Fredy
• born on 11th February 1916 in Aachen / - / Rheinprovinz
• resident of Düsseldorf and Frankfurt a. Main
• Emigration: Tschechoslowakei (CSR)
• Deportation: from Prag 04th December 1941, Theresienstadt, ghetto
• 06th September 1943, Auschwitz, extermination camp
• Date of death: 08th March 1944
• Place of death: Auschwitz, extermination camp
• Destiny: suicide

http://www.aachen.de/de/kultur_freizeit/kultur/stadtarchiv/archival...

Der am 11. Februar 1916 in Aachen geborene Jugendleiter Fredy Hirsch, der am 8. März 1944 im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau den Tod fand, gehört sicherlich zu den bedeutenden Aachenern. Er war gemeinsam mit seinem Bruder ein führendes Mitglied des jüdischen Pfadfinderbundes, wirkte als Funktionär, Sportlehrer und Jugenderzieher und setzte sich als Häftling im Vernichtungslager Auschwitz-Birkenau für die Betreuung und das Überleben von jüdischen Kindern aus dem Ghetto Theresienstadt ein. Dieser Aachener, der die Lebensumstände sehr vieler jüdischer Kinder in der Zeit der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung verbesserte und Leben rettete, war allzu lange vergessen. Auch in seiner Heimatstadt beginnt man erst in den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten, an ihn zu erinnern. Inzwischen beschäftigen sich weltweit verschiedene Initiativen mit Fredy Hirsch und seinem Wirken.

Freddy Hirsch was the leader of the underground in Birkenau.

He committed suicide prior to a planned uprising.

The Holocaust - Martin Gilbert

Czech TV document:

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10204458965-neznami-hrdinove/211...

Eintrag im »Gedenkbuch« des Bundesarchivs:

Hirsch, Alfred Fredy

geboren am 11. Februar 1916 in Aachen / - / Rheinprovinz wohnhaft in Düsseldorf und Frankfurt a. Main

Emigration: Tschechoslowakei (CSR)

Deportation: ab Prag 04. Dezember 1941, Theresienstadt, Ghetto 06. September 1943, Auschwitz, Konzentrations-und Vernichtungslager

Todesdatum: 08. März 1944 Todesort: Auschwitz, Vernichtungslager Schicksal: Freitod