Hirsch, Ilse (Combatants/Military Personnel)

(b. 19 2 2)

Guide for a German assassination team. Ilse Hirsch was born in Hamm, Germany, in 1922. When she was sixteen, she joined the League of Young German Women (Bund der Deutschen Madchen), the Hitler youth group for female adolescents, and was one of its leaders in Monschau. She was trained for a mission to assassinate Franz Oppenhoff, who had been appointed mayor of the Houston Post, she advanced from research editor in 1931 to executive vice president in 1938. Hobby was the mother of a ten-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter when she took the position as director of the WAAC in 1942.

Aachen by the Americans after they seized the German city. Hirsch was parachuted with a team of five men, led by SS Lieutenant Herbert Wen-zel, to the countryside outside the city. Hirsch, who knew the area, led the team to Oppenhoff’s residence where Wenzel and Sepp Leitgeb killed him. During their attempted escape, Hirsch detonated a mine attached to a trip-wire. Leitgeb was killed, and she was badly injured. She was apparently not suspected of participating in the assassination and was able to return home after a lengthy recovery. After the war, Hirsch and the other living perpetrators, with the exception of Wenzel, were eventually apprehended and tried in the Werewolf Trial in Aachen in October 1949. They were found guilty and sentenced to terms ranging from one to four years.

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