(JTA) — A Holocaust survivor, fulfilling a lifelong dream, sang the national anthem at a Major League Baseball game.
Hermina Hirsch, 89, performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Saturday at Comerica Park in Detroit prior to the Tigers’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Hirsch in an interview last month with the Detroit television station WWJ called on the ballclub to allow her to sing and said she would not be nervous singing in front of thousands of baseball fans.
“If I lived through the concentration camp, it couldn’t be that bad,” Hirsch said. “I don’t want to die before I sing at a baseball game.”
After an outpouring of fan support, Hirsch was asked to sing at a game.
Hirsh, who was born in Czechoslovakia, endured a series of Nazi camps beginning in 1944, at the age of 17. She was liberated in January 1945.
She reportedly has been a Tigers’ fan since moving to Detroit with her husband in 1953. The couple immediately began attending baseball games.
Hirsch has been singing the national anthem for years during regular meetings of area Holocaust survivors.
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