Astrid Prackatzsch

Fredy Hirsch (1916 Aachen - 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau) was a particularly gifted athletic boy and a Jewish scout who ultimately became a prematurely gray, mature man. In Theresienstadt, he earned great respect as an educator and fought in vain for the fate of several hundred children in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It remains unclear whether Fredy Hirsch took his own life or died from an overdose by the medical staff. About 10,000 children passed through the Theresienstadt ghetto, and in the last winter of the war 1944/45, only 1,086 remained there. All the others had been "shipped further east," with Auschwitz-Birkenau being the final destination for most. Children under the age of 14 had no chance there. The survivors can be counted on one hand, and of the older ones, only about 250 returned after the war. Fredy Hirsch tried to save everyone. Today, a modest memorial plaque on the building of the former Theresienstadt school commemorates him. At the unveiling of this plaque, Zuzana Ruzicková, who was a girl in the Theresienstadt children's block, said among other things: "We Jews have no saints. However, we have the Zaddikim - the Righteous - or perhaps one could translate it as - decent people? Fredy Hirsch was a human being; he had his flaws, he was not a saint. However, he was a Righteous - a Zaddik. And so we hope that when the last of us who knew him has passed away, future generations will stop in front of this plaque and say: This must have been a good, brave, and beautiful person.".