10 Thursday, April 5, 2018 | Haaretz WEEKEND A still from the documentary “Dear Fredy,” by Rubi Gat, who believes that Hirsch’s story was quashed by Czechoslovakia’s communist regime “because he was a Jew and because he was a homosexual.” Yael Ozsinay / Mind the Gap Animation Michal Aharony countries. While generally, new arriv- als to Auschwitz were immediately put through a selection, with 90 percent be- n 1940, an article appeared in ing sent directly to the gas chambers, Prague’s Jewish newspaper en- everyone on the September transport titled, “Healthy Youth – Healthy A hero who went down was moved into an empty camp that Homeland.” “Which do you pre- had just been built. This camp, which fer,” it began, “a proud and tall was denoted as “BIIb,” was referred Isuntanned lad, or a flabby, nervous to by all as the Familienlager (“family youngster with drooping shoulders? camp”). Probably the first. But what are you These new prisoners did not have doing about emulating him? Nothing!” loving, not fighting their heads shaved and were not forced The piece was written by Alfred to wear striped prisoner’s uniforms. (Fredy) Hirsch, a 24-year-old outstand- Although the men and women lived in ing athlete and gymnastics teacher, separate blocks, they could still meet, and a youth counselor in the Maccabee Today his name is almost unknown, but both before his death at Auschwitz, Jewish youth leader unlike in other parts of Auschwitz, Hatzair Zionist youth movement. He Fredy Hirsch was revered by hundreds of children. A new film looks at his remarkable educational where men and women were separated would soon become a revered teacher by barbed wire. What these prisoners at Theresienstadt and later in the chil- work and his gay identity, and speculates that in dying, he helped keeped dozens alive didn’t know – but which has become dren’s block of the “family camp” at clear from survivors’ testimonies – was Auschwitz-Birkenau. While his native that, on their Auschwitz inmate’s cards, Germany marked the centenary of his the abbreviation SB appeared next to birth two years ago, few in Israel know were banned from attending Czech and visit there. It was also meant to be an side the ghetto, and when I gazed at this very often, mainly to get children and their names. This stood for Sonder- of Hirsch and his educational efforts, German public schools. Their move- “old people’s ghetto” (Altersghetto), to landscape, I experienced for the first orphans off the lists of deportees. In behandlung ,or “special treatment” – and even fewer are aware that he saved ments were highly restricted and the which thousands of older Jews from time the feeling that I was a prisoner, late August 1943, a special transport code meaning they were to be gassed in many Jews from death at Auschwitz number of places where they could Austria and Germany would be sent. because I knew that I would never be arrived at the ghetto carrying 1,200 six months. And indeed, in early March and brightened the final months of the play were reduced. The Hagibor sports The children’s living quarters were able to go to those places now,” he adds. children from the Bialystok Ghetto 1944, with very few exceptions, every- lives of hundreds of doomed children. ground in Prague’s Strasnice neigh- separated from those of the adults, “On one of these rambles, I ended up (in Poland), which had just been liqui- one from the September transport still Hirsch’s story – that of a gay Ger- borhood became Hirsch’s kingdom, and later some of the older children and at the playing field again. It was empty, dated. The children, who had already alive was sent to the gas chambers. man-Jewish refugee who had fled his where he gave gymnastic instruction teens moved into a “children’s house” and there was total silence. Then sud- been starved and neglected and had Why were the prisoners of the Czech land of birth for Czechoslovakia and to Jewish children and organized soc- (“hime”) where they slept separately denly, at one end, I saw an athletic- witnessed the murder of their fami- family camp kept alive for six months chose to sacrifice his life for children cer matches, scouting games, camping from their parents. looking figure throwing a discus and lies, were kept in isolation. They were in better conditions? Different theories – is closely tied to the story of the an- training and study groups. The head of the ghetto youth depart- picking it up and throwing it again kept alive to be bartered later for Ger- were proposed over the years, but it nihilation of Czech Jewry during the “We spent every day doing sports ment was Egon (Gonda) Redlich, and and picking it up, and so on, his entire man citizens, in return for their release wasn’t until the late 1960s, when histo- Holocaust. So why is Janusz Korczak, and games and singing,” says Dita Hirsch was his deputy. The children being dedicated to this motion, like and eventual emigration to Palestine. It rian Dov Kulka discovered documents another devoted educator who chose to Kraus, an Auschwitz survivor who continued their academic studies, for- the famous Greek statue ‘The Discus was strictly forbidden to approach the from the Reich Security Main Office at die with his young charges, known to knew Hirsch from Prague and There- bidden them by the Germans, in secret Thrower.’ In this silence, I recognized Bialystok children while they were in the Americans’ Berlin Document Cen- every Israeli child, while Fredy Hirsch sienstadt, in Rubi Gat’s 2017 docu- in their quarters, and they also played him as Fredy Hirsch. Fredy had an the ghetto, but Hirsch ignored the ban ter, that the rationale could be clearly remains an unknown hero? mentary “Dear Fredy” (which will be games and put on plays. Their Jew- attractive appearance. He didn’t just and sneaked into their bunks. understood. The documents showed Hirsch was born on February 11, ish counselors required them to bathe project authority, he also projected em- that there had been a possibility that 1916, in Aachen, Germany. When he daily, even with just cold water. Hirsch pathy to everyone who talked with him. a delegation from the International was 10 his father, Heinrich Hirsch, was among those who conducted strict He was a charismatic personality.” Red Cross that was supposed to visit died, and his mother, Olga Hirsch, re- cleanliness examinations, and he also Similar descriptions of Hirsch’s im- Hunger and sickness were Theresienstadt would continue from Why is Janusz Korczak, married. He had one brother, Paul, who ran cleanliness competitions, in which pressive appearance – his athletic build severe at the ‘family camp’: there to Birkenau. The family camp was two years older. Kiryat Ono resi- another devoted educator he awarded prizes. When weather and handsome face – are heard in the was a show facility built in anticipation dent Rachel Massel, 69, Paul’s daughter, permitted, Hirsch managed to obtain testimonies of nearly all the survivors Within six months nearly a of that possibility. It was part of the Na- told me the brothers were very much who chose to die with his permission to take the children out who knew him. Journalist and writer zis’ deception plan designed to refute quarter of the prisoners had alike. Both were charismatic athletes young charges, known to into the fresh air. He converted some Ruth Bondy, an Auschwitz survivor a the rumors about the real meaning of and leaders, and both were active from of wide, grassy fortress walls of the journalist who died this past November died. In the children’s block, the transports “to the east.” their youth in Germany’s Jewish scout- every Israeli child, while Terezin Citadel into playing fields, and at 94, writes in her 2002 book “Uproot- Block 31 at the family camp was however, thanks to Hirsch’s ing movement. Fredy Hirsch remains an organized soccer tournaments. A high ed Roots” that in Prague, at Theresien- the children’s block, and its guiding But while Fredy was a Zionist, Paul, point of these efforts was the ghetto’s stadt and even at Auschwitz, Hirsch efforts, the mortality rate force was Fredy Hirsch. Since gener- who studied at a Reform rabbinical unknown hero? Maccabia sports competition of May always held himself upright. His hair ally, children were sent to their deaths seminary, was not at all. When Hitler 1943, which was watched by thousands was always perfectly combed and his was almost zero. upon arrival at Auschwitz, it was very came to power, Olga, her second hus- of spectators. boots were always polished. The whis- unusual to see children at the camp. band, Martin, immigrated to Bolivia, Prof. Dov Kulka, a historian who tle around his neck was his trademark. Hirsch managed to create something together with Paul. “Fredy could have was 9 when he lived in the ghetto, re- Survivor testimonies say that Hirsch’s of a protective bubble for hundreds gone with them,” says Massel, “but he’d shown on Israel’s Kan television on members the first time he saw Hirsch face was the first thing the frightened He believed that his good connec- of children in the middle of the death already begun working with the chil- Holocaust Remembrance Day). “Every at Theresienstadt. “On the roof of one children saw when they arrived in tions with the Germans would protect camp. There is no written documenta- dren and didn’t want to leave them.” group had a counselor.