Fredy Hirsch

Aachen, Germany

Alfred "Fredy" Hirsch is inseparably connected with the education of children and young people in the Terezín ghetto, and finally in the „family camp“ at Auschwitz/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.