Holocaust Educational Trust Chief Executive, Karen Pollock MBE, commented:
”Hermann Hirschberger came to the UK in 1939 aged 12 years old on the Kindertransport. He left behind many members of his family and lost both of his parents in Auschwitz in 1942.
“Until poor health Herman was a regular speaker in schools sharing his testimony inspiring the next generation. Herman was not only a charming and charismatic man but also a determined one. Campaigning for more than 14 years, thanks to his efforts Herman was eventually successful in securing pension payments for British Kindertransport evacuees from the German government.
”I and all of us at the Holocaust Educational Trust have very fond memories of Herman and will miss him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Hermann was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 1926. After Kristallnacht, Hermann’s parents realised that it was not safe to stay in Germany and tried to arrange for the family to leave. They were unable to obtain visas for the whole family, but managed to arrange for Hermann and his brother to be sent to Britain on the Kindertransport. The boys left Germany in March 1939.
The brothers regularly wrote to their parents from England, and two days before the war broke out their parents wrote to say they had just received their permits to join them, but with the outbreak of war they were unable to leave. They were sent to a camp in the Pyrenees where they were able to still write to them, until they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 where they were both killed.
Hermann regularly spoke for the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Outreach Programme, ensuring that thousands of school students heard his testimony and learned more about the Holocaust.