1. Alfred Hirsch was a German-Jewish athlete, sports teacher and Zionist youth movement leader, notable for helping thousands of Jewish children during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in Prague, Theresienstadt concentration camp, and Auschwitz.
Fredy Hirsch was the deputy supervisor of children at Theresienstadt and the supervisor of the children's block at the Theresienstadt family camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
The family camp was due to be liquidated on 8 March 1944; Fredy Hirsch's popularity made him a natural leader for an uprising.
Fredy Hirsch was born in Aachen to Heinrich and Olga Fredy Hirsch on 11 February 1916; his father, who ran a butcher shop, died when he was ten years old.
Fredy Hirsch left in March 1931 when his mother moved, but there is no evidence that he attended another school, and apparently he continued to live in Aachen.
Fredy Hirsch was already giving lectures at the age of 15.
Fredy Hirsch took over the leadership of the scouting branch of the local Aachen Jewish youth association in 1931, and participated in founding the Aachen branch of the Judischer Pfadfinderbund Deutschland, a German Jewish scouting organization, in 1932.
Later that year, Fredy Hirsch moved to Dusseldorf for a job with the JPD.
Fredy Hirsch became an ardent Zionist, supporting the establishment of a Jewish state in then British Mandate of Palestine.
Fredy Hirsch moved to Frankfurt, where he shared a flat with leading JPD officials and led a scouting group.
Fredy Hirsch moved to Dresden in 1934, where he worked as a sports instructor for Maccabi Hatzair and probably attended lectures at the German College of Physical Education in Berlin.
The Czech branch of the organization was initially concerned about his reputation, but Fredy Hirsch was able to persuade Arthur Herzog, chairman of Maccabi Hatzair in the Czech lands, that his homosexuality did not affect his work.
Fredy Hirsch organized the 1937 Maccabi Games for Czechoslovakia held in Zilina, Slovakia, with 1,600 participants.
Fredy Hirsch could have accompanied them, but did not; Paul later said that Fredy Hirsch's Zionist convictions had prevented him.
Eighteen boys trained by Fredy Hirsch were able to escape to Denmark in October 1939, and immigrated to Palestine the following year.
Fredy Hirsch drew lots with another Zionist youth leader as to which of them would go to Palestine with the boys; Hirsch lost and remained in Prague.
Fredy Hirsch helped prepare the deportees with the 50 kilograms of luggage they were allowed to bring.
Fredy Hirsch was one of the first Jews to be transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on 4 December 1941, where he helped to construct the concentration camp.
Later, Fredy Hirsch became the deputy to Egon Redlich, the leader of the Youth Services Department; Redlich personally disliked Fredy Hirsch, but respected his competence and leadership ability.
Children 14 and older had to work; Fredy Hirsch tried to get them jobs working in the vegetable gardens because he believed that this work would improve their health and prepare them for life in Palestine.
Fredy Hirsch paid attention to his posture and appearance, keeping his hair combed and boots polished, and reportedly continuing to pomade his hair at Auschwitz.
Fredy Hirsch was able to establish a good relationship with SS guards even though he was Jewish and openly gay.
Redlich and Fredy Hirsch used their influence to arrange separate barracks and slightly better conditions for the children.
Fredy Hirsch persuaded the Germans to allocate space for a play area inside the concentration camp, where he frequently oversaw athletic activities.
Peter Erben believes that Fredy Hirsch could have avoided punishment if he had been able to speak Czech.
Fredy Hirsch was appointed the lageralteste of the family camp, because of the respect that the SS had for his leadership.
Fredy Hirsch refused to use violence against other prisoners, as the Germans demanded.
Fredy Hirsch recruited adult prisoners who had been involved in education at Theresienstadt and persuaded the guards that it would be in their interest to have the children learn German.
Fredy Hirsch convinced the Germans to hold roll call inside the barracks, so the children were spared the hours-long ordeal of standing outside in all weather.
Nevertheless, Fredy Hirsch was not excepted from the brutal treatment of the guards, being badly beaten when a boy slept through the roll call.
Fredy Hirsch persuaded Bohm to allocate a second barracks for children aged three to eight so that the older children could prepare a performance of Snow White, which the SS had requested.
Fredy Hirsch was the natural leader for an uprising, because he was respected by opposing factions in the family camp.
Apparently Fredy Hirsch was uncertain whether to believe the warnings about imminent death and skeptical of the value of resistance.
Fredy Hirsch thought it was unreasonable that the Nazis would give them such favored treatment only to murder them later.
Fredy Hirsch asked for an hour to think, and when Vrba returned, Fredy Hirsch was in a coma.
Still unconscious, Fredy Hirsch was carried with them and was murdered along with many of the children under his supervision.
Fredy Hirsch was the subject of the 2016 documentary Heaven in Auschwitz, which featured the accounts of thirteen survivors of Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.
Fredy Hirsch was featured in the 2017 Israeli documentary "Dear Fredy" by Rubi Gat.
Fredy Hirsch is the rare exception to the absent or anonymous gay Holocaust victim because he worked with children and teenagers, who lived long enough to tell the truth about him.