Alfred (Fredy) Hirsch lived in Aachen and ran a Jewish scouting group. Persecuted as a Jew in Germany, he fled to Czechoslovakia in 1935. This was where he met his later life partner Jan Mautner. The two men taught sport at the Zionist sport association Makkabi Hatzair in Brno.
In March 1939, German troops invaded Czechoslovakia. Hirsch and Leitner were now also persecuted in their new home. They moved to Prague, where Hirsch worked in the Jewish Community’s youth service, preparing young people to emigrate to British Mandate Palestine. From December 1941, he worked as a carer in the Theresienstadt ghetto and headed the ghetto’s youth service. In the fall of 1943, Hirsch and other ghetto inmates were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. He managed to get the children allocated to a special block and became its leader. The living conditions were better in the children’s block than elsewhere in the camp, and the children were taught in secret. In March 1944, the children under Hirsch’s care were to be murdered. Shortly after learning this news, Fredy Hirsch died of an overdose of tranquilizers.
Alfred Hirsch, 1930s. Source: Beit Theresienstadt Archives, Kibbutz Givat Chaim (Ihud)
