Else Hirsch

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Else Hirsch (July 29, 1889 in Bützow, Schwerin - ? in Riga Ghetto) was a Jewish teacher in Bochum, Germany, who helped Jewish children to emigrate from the Third Reich.

Else Hirsch came from Berlin to Bochum in 1927 where she had been offered a job as a teacher at the Jewish school. Further she worked in the Jewish women's club and gave lessons in Hebrew to girls.

In October 1937 she took part in a further education for English language at the Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden in Berlin to be able to give English lessons for possible emigrants. She travelled to Palestine in June 1938 - probably to contact the Youth Aliyah.

After the Reichskristallnacht in November 1938, when also the synagogue in Bochum was burned down, the Jewish school became obligate for all Jewish boys and girls in Bochum. Else Hirsch began to organize children's emigration in arrangement with the Jewish Reichsvertretung. Between December 1938 and August 1939 she organized 10 children transports to the Netherlands and England.

She stayed with the remaining pupils as the only Jewish teacher until the school was dissolved in September 1941.

In late December 1942 Else Hirsch and some of her pupils were deported into the Riga Ghetto. A surviving pupil reports that she gave education to juveniles in a building for a short time and organized food for old and weak people. The last time when he saw her she was collecting weed to cook soup from it for the seniors.

Else Hirsch died in the Holocaust. Many young Jews owe their lives to Else Hirsch and a street is named after her in Bochum.