Else Hirsch

Else Hirsch (29 July 1889 – 1942 or 1943) was a Jewish teacher in Bochum, Germany, and a member of the German Resistance against Nazi Germany. She organized transports of Jewish children to the Netherlands and England, saving them from Nazi deportation to concentration camps and death. Hirsch perished in the Riga Ghetto, at the age of 53 or 54.

Born in Bützow, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hirsch came from Berlin to Bochum at the end of 1926 and lived with her mother. She had taken an exam to qualify as a teacher of older children, but was unemployed and was assigned (and required) to teach at the Jewish school. She was initially less than pleased with this but soon threw herself into her work.^[1] In her free time, Hirsch worked at the Bochum Jewish Women's Club and gave Hebrew lessons to girls until these activities were stopped by the Nazis in autumn 1933.^[1][2]

In October 1937, she took a course in English at the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden in Berlin to be able to give English lessons to those who might be able to emigrate. She travelled to Palestine in June 1938.^[2]

On 11 November 1938, Reichskristallnacht, the Bochum synagogue was burned down.^[3] The Jewish school was also destroyed by the SA. Afterward, all of the official representatives of the Jewish community were deported. Hirsch fought to have the school reopened, but it stayed open only for a short while.^[1] Hirsch began to organize transports for children and adolescents in arrangement with the Jewish Reichsvertretung. Between December 1938 and August 1939, she organized ten children's transports to the Netherlands and England.^[1][2] Hirsch took care of all the travel preparations, filling out lengthy forms, registering the children, gathering required documents, sending papers to London, securing exit visas, reserving seating on the trains, buying the tickets and staying in close touch with the parents.^[1]

Permaneció con los alumnos restantes como la única maestra judía hasta que la escuela cerró en septiembre de 1941. La emigración de judíos fue prohibida después de 1941. ^{[ 1 ] [ 2 ]} A finales de enero de 1942, Hirsch y algunos de sus alumnos fueron deportados al gueto de Riga . Un alumno superviviente relata que durante un breve tiempo continuó enseñando a niños. También organizaba comidas para personas débiles y ancianos. ^{[ 2 ]} La última vez que el alumno superviviente la vio, estaba recogiendo ortigas y hojas de diente de león para cocinar como verduras para los ancianos. ^{[ 1 ]} Fue asesinada en 1942 o 1943. ^{[ 1 ]}

Hirsch escribió en el álbum de poesía de un alumno: «No juzgues el valor de los hombres / después de una sola mirada / Arriba solo hay ondas / para sondear, hay que cavar hondo». ^{[ 1 ]}

Calles en Bochum y Bad Lausick llevan su nombre. ^{[ 4 ] [ 5 ]} Hay una piedra conmemorativa (stolperstein) en honor a Hirsch en Huestraße 28 en Bochum, Alemania, donde enseñó de 1927 a 1941. ^{[ 6 ]}

• Anna Essinger
• Escuela Bunce Court
• Lista de alemanes que resistieron el nazismo

• "Gedenkveranstaltung zum 65. Jahrestag der Pogromnacht" Archivado el 27 de julio de 2011 en la Wayback Machine Ciudad de Bochum. Consultado el 24 de abril de 2010 (en alemán).