Recently, 89-year-old Hermina Hirsch was able to live out a longstanding dream: singing the national anthem before a Detroit Tigers baseball game. In 1944, Hirsch was a 17-year-old living in her native Czechoslovakia when she and her family were captured by the Nazis and put into different concentration camps. Hirsch herself was imprisoned at Auschwitz, a death camp which is notorious for the brutality of the Nazis who ran it.
Hirsch survived, however, and was liberated from the camp in 1945 and immigrated to the United States to begin a new life in Detroit, where she lives to this day. As a hobby, she has always loved to sing, and a song she enjoys singing is the American national anthem because of her love of her adopted country. A Detroit Tigers fan, her dream was to sing the anthem before a Tigers game, but she only expressed this dream to her family and friends.
Then a younger family member made a video of her singing the national anthem and put it on social media along with the story of Hirsch and her dream. The clip was seen by many different people and eventually reached the attention of the Detroit Tigers organization, and Hirsch was invited to sing at a Tigers game.
Dozens of family members came to hear her sing, and Hirsch gave an excellent and emotional performance. Her voice was clear, and, as she hit the high notes of the song, the patriotism behind her singing was obvious. The audience was clearly moved and gave her a great round of applause. Hirsch and her performance are truly inspirational.