Alfred Hirsch was born on 11th February 1916. Growing up in Aachen, he was one of many young German Jews influenced by Zionist views and scouting. Along with his elder brother Paul, he joined the JPD (Jüdischer Pfadfinderbund Deutschland / German Jewish Scouting Movement).

LEAVING GERMANY

Following Hitler’s rise to power, his family divided, with his brother, mother and her new husband leaving for Bolivia - Fredy’s father had died when he was ten years old. Fredy chose to remain in Germany, spending time in Düsseldorf then later, Frankfurt am Main. In 1935, along with many other German Jews, he left for Czechoslovakia.

PRAGUE

Well groomed with an athletic build and friendly, caring nature, Fredy Hirsch dedicated his life toward working with young people, sports exercise and preparing people for the return to "The Promised Land". Having spent time in Ostrava then Brno, Hirsch moved to Prague in 1939. He organised summer camps, youth sports competitions and similar activites, including organised meetings at the Hagibor site (see thread linked below), a place used as one of the last remaining sites where Jews were allowed to gather publicly within the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, with sports activities for youngsters arranged on a regular basis.

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/konzen…agibor-251414/

THERESIENSTADT

The newly created Jewish ghetto at Terezín saw Hirsch and 22 others arrive in early December 1941. As Aufbaukommando II, they were detailed to organise life within the new holding site for Jewish deportees. Special rooms for children were soon created - they lived apart from their parents. Hirsch, Bedřich Prager and Egon Redlich all played roles in helping the children of the ghetto have as good a chance at education, exercise and better living conditions as possible. Teachers moved into the children’s houses, games were arranged and Hirsch stressed upon the youngsters the importance of personal hygiene and physical fitness - for therein lay their best chance of survival. Due to his nature and appearance, Hirsch even managed to garner a certain level of respect from some members of the SS, eventually swaying them to set aside an area as a playground for the children. In May of 1943, the Terezín Maccabi Games took place. Later that year, a transport of children from the liquidated Bialystok ghetto arrived at Theresienstadt. They were isolated and a strict ban on communication was set in place. Hirsch however, made contact with their carer, later being found out and as punishment, included on the massive transport of September 6th 1943 that took 5,000 mostly Czech Jews to the Familienlager at Auschwitz-II, Birkenau.

BIRKENAU

Cca 300 children aged 15 and under were included in the transport to Birkenau. Unusually, they were not murdered immediately, as was the case with other children - excluding Zigeunerkinder (gypsy children), who were also present at Birkenau, who arrived at the Vernichtungslager - the exact reason for this decision is still debated today. Through resigning his advantageous position as Lagerkapo, Hirsch managed to acquire one of the wooden barracks at compound BIIb (Block 31) for use as a Kinderblock, becoming its leader and spending his days with the children, who were learning and playing games there during the day, then returning to their parents at night - no rows of bunks were present in Block 31, the children instead sat at tables. Walls were adorned with paintings of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, flowers and various fairytale characters. The children of Block 31 had certain advantages. Roll-call was held inside and kept short, no SS were in their immediate vicinity and extra food rations were sometimes available, following the death of recipients who had been sent food parcels. Secret lessons were taught, with lookouts warning when an SS guard approached, at which time, the children usually broke into songs sung in German that they had rehearsed. During the winter of 1943/1944, Dr. Mengele attended a children’s performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, applauding enthusiastically and having the youngsters call him uncle while they sat on his knee. A second block was added for the children following the late 1943 arrival of 200 more youngsters.

MARCH 1944

Rudolf Vrba, a Czech connected to the Auschwitz resistance group, met and informed Hirsch that the SS planned to liquidate the entire family camp - "Sonderbehandlung" has been seen noted on prisoner files. Considering an uprising, Fredy Hirsch asked for an hour to decide what to do next. When Vrba returned, he found Hirsch unconscious. A doctor reported he had taken an overdose of tranquillizers - it is unknown how he managed to obtain the drugs. On the evening of March 8th 1944, Fredy Hirsch’s body was burned in the Birkenau, along with almost 3,800 murdered prisoners of the family camp.