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Thanks to Hirsch's ability to negotiate with the Nazi commanders (he always took care to look well-presented and have clean boots) he managed to reserve one of the wooden buildings in the family camp for the children's block. He then gave up his advantageous position as a lagerkapo and became the head of the children's block.
The block was furnished differently from the most of the other prisoners' buildings at Birkenau. Instead of three-level bunk beds it had little tables at which the children sat - since the children only spent the day here, returning to their families at night. The walls inside the building were decorated with pictures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Eskimos, flowers and fairytale characters. The children spent most of the day in block 31. They ate here, and in addition to soup, other food was obtained for them from parcels that had arrived at the camp but whose addressees were already dead. The children were also protected from the otherwise omnipresent reign of terror of the SS officials. Other positive features of the children's block were that the daily roll-calls were short and took place within the building itself, rather than taking place outside...
In late 1943 and early 1944 the children also rehearsed and performed a production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was attended by SS men, including Dr. Mengele, who applauded the children enthusiastically, had them sit on his knee and asked them to call him Uncle.
After the arrival of the December transports there were around 500 children in the block, and Hirsch managed to gain a further building for the children.
Before his death, Hirsch appointed his successors as the heads of the children's block - Seppl Lichtenstern and Jan Brammer.
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