Florentine Chicken for Fredy

This last weekend was Holocaust Memorial Day. Our meal tonight is to honor one of our LGBT heroes of that awful experience. Please read about Fredy Hirsch after the recipe.

 

Chicken thighs simmered in a creamed spinach with tomatoes and a touch of roasted garlic is just the thing to impress and provide a five star restaurant experience at your table tonight. 

 

Ingredients

• 1 whole garlic head
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 chicken thighs
• 1 onion chopped
• ¼ tsp salt + ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 1 cup unsalted chicken broth
• 1kg chopped spinach thawed & drained
• 3 roma tomatoes diced
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut the top off garlic head; discard top. Rub cut side of garlic head with olive oil. Remove white papery skin from garlic head (do not peel or separate the cloves). Wrap garlic in foil. Bake at 400° for 55 minutes or until tender; cool slightly.

Separate cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Discard skins. Place garlic pulp in a bowl; mash with a fork. 
 

While that is roasting, you have plenty of time to do your cutting: Dice the tomatoes, slice the mushrooms, chop the onions.

Set out the chicken thighs and dust with cornstarch to dry out the skins. This will give a nice crunch.

Place the thawed spinach in a colander to drain and blot with paper towels.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 5 minutes on the skin side just to give a nice color and crunch to the skin, remove and cover with foil. 
 

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add butter to pan; swirl until butter melts. Add the onions and mushrooms. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until onions start to turn clear and water is cooked out of mushrooms, giving a nice dark color.
Add in the flour; cook 15 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in garlic pulp, milk, and chicken stock; bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. 
 

Stir in spinach and let cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the diced tomato and place the thighs back into the mix. Cover and let simmer on low for about 15 minutes or until chicken thighs have reached a temp of 160 degrees.
 

Plate the chicken to a platter and spoon out the spinach mixture to serve as a side. Wonderful aroma, beautiful colors and a very healthy dish to serve.

For our music: Here is something for our sick world!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LCoYj5LLQ
Happy to be serving my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

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Nutritional Information

• Calories 488 Fat 12.6g Sodium 563mg

Fredy Hirsch 
 

Fredy Hirsch was an athlete and PE teacher. He was Jewish and gay. As a prisoner of the Nazi concentration camps he saved the lives of hundreds of children. While most academia try to whitewash him from history, the few that still remember this young man do so with love and a sparkle in the eye.
This brave young man stood up to some of the most evil the world has ever seen. By force of his personality, secured just enough opportunities to save many of the youngest victims of the Holocaust. 
 
Hirsch was born in Aachen, Germany, in 1916.

After the passage of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, Hirsch moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, probably illegally. According to German historian Dirk Kämper, the author of the first biography of Hirsch, he may have also been motivated to escape the increasing persecution of gay men in Germany.

There he lived openly with his lover Jan Mautner, a slightly older medical student, between 1936 and 1939.

Their relationship was well known in the city, according to Holocaust survivor Ruth Kopečková.

Fredy organized and ran youth camps and worked to help young Jews hoping to emigrate to Palestine. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 and banned Jews from public places, Hirsch found a playground where the children could still exercise and managed to smuggle 18 of his youngsters out of the country to neutral Denmark.

Hirsch was one of the first Jews to be transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in December 1941, where he was forced to help build that camp. His managed to get an appointment with the housing department. Later, Hirsch became the deputy to Egon Redlich, the leader of the Youth Services Department; (Redlich personally disliked Hirsch, but respected his competence and leadership ability).

At Theresienstadt, the children lived separately from the adults. Fredy knew he must insist on the children maintaining self-esteem, discipline, regular exercise and strict hygiene—even holding cleanliness competitions—in order to maximize their chances of survival.

Hirsch recruited adult prisoners to become involved in education and persuaded the guards that it would be in their interest to have the children learn German. In fact, the teachers taught other subjects, including history, music, and Judaism, in Czech, as well as a few German phrases to recite at inspections. A chorus rehearsed regularly, a children's opera was performed, and the walls of the barracks were painted with Disney characters by Dina Gottliebová.

Because the block was so orderly, it was shown off to SS men who worked in other parts of the camp. SS men who directly participated in the extermination process, especially Dr. Josef Mengele, visited frequently and helped organize better food for the children.

The Germans did not actively oppose his activities because they felt that it helped maintain order.

Children 14 and older had to work; Hirsch tried to get them jobs working in the vegetable gardens because he believed that this work would improve their health. 

Survivors often remarked on Hirsch's self-confident attitude, good looks, and careful appearance, which had a stabilizing effect on other prisoners. He paid attention to his posture and appearance, keeping his hair combed and boots polished, and reportedly continuing to grease back his hair as was the fashion of the day. Hirsch was able to establish a good relationship with SS guards even though he was Jewish and openly gay. According to Yehuda Bacon, "he spoke German as well as the Nazis, he had charm and a tip-top look. He knew how to talk to the SS. He was dressed like a soldier." Pavel Stránský, who had been an educator on the children's block at Auschwitz, testified that "[t]he SS treated him almost like a human being".

Using his influence with the Germans, Hirsch obtained better food for the children and food parcels addressed to prisoners who had died. The soup for the children was thicker than for other prisoners; allegedly it was from the Gypsy camp and contained semolina. The children's barracks also received additional coal and was slightly better heated.

Hirsch convinced the Germans to hold roll call inside the barracks, so the children were spared the hours-long ordeal of standing outside in all weather. After another transport arrived in December 1943, there were about 700 children in the family camp; Mautner was also on this transport. Hirsch tried to make contact with these children but was caught. Allegedly for this violation, he was deported to Auschwitz on 8 September. 

 

There again, Hirsch used his influence with the Germans, to obtain better food for the children. The children's barracks also received additional coal and was slightly better heated.
Hirsch persuaded them to allocate a second barracks for children aged three to eight so that the older children could prepare a performance of Snow White, which the SS had requested.

The children appreciated Hirsch's efforts on their behalf, and threw a surprise party for him on 11 February 1944, his 28th birthday. A delegation from the Reich Main Security Office and the German Red Cross visited the family camp. The visitors were most interested in the children's barracks. The most notable visitor, Adolf Eichmann, commented favorably about the cultural activity of the children at Birkenau.

It seems ironic that Fredy Hirsch, who fought the system of the concentration camps would not die by the hands of the Germans!

One story goes that Hirsch was asked to lead a revolt because he was so popular and it was clear to the prisoners Germany was losing the war.

He knew that a revolt without weapons and adequate preparation would spell certain death for all the children under his protection. It was said that Hirsch then committed suicide by swallowing Luminal (phenobarbital) pills.

However other survivors who knew Hirsch personally, were certain he did not commit suicide. Hirsch had simply requested a tranquilizer to calm himself, but the doctors, whom Mengele promised would be allowed to live, sought to prevent the uprising and gave him an overdose. 

 

We may never know what ended the life of this dedicated 28 year old gay man. Fredy's partner Jan survived Auschwitz, as well as at least one other camp and being shipped back to Theresienstadt. He became a doctor and found a new partner. But he did not escape unscathed: he had contracted tuberculosis in the camps and died in Prague in 1951.

Hirsch remains deeply etched in the memories of the survivors who knew him, some of whom are sure that he saved their lives. “People loved him,” one researcher reported. “Their eyes sparkled when they talked about him. Not one had any problem talking about his sexuality. People miss him, and they accept him as he was.” 

 

And there were more – not to mention the countless numbers whose exact fate remains unknown. Gay men; killed simply because they loved another man.
If you take one thing from all this, as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day, note the Nazis didn’t just kill individuals. One of the gay men who died might have gone on to invent something incredible, they might have become a great diplomat or leader who avoided another murderous war, the younger ones might have gone on to become scientists or doctors, who found a cure for cancer, dementia, ebola, heart disease, or HIV. The common cold – who knows?
The Nazis didn’t just kill individuals: they killed the future.