Civil rights & activism
Alice Herz
1882–1965 · peace activist, teacher
German-born pacifist and Wayne State German instructor who in March 1965, aged 82, became the first American known to set herself on fire in protest against the Vietnam War.
- Born
Hamburg, Germany- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 82- Birth name
- Alice Jeanette Strauss
- Detroit years
- 1950s–1965
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Alice Herz grew up in Hamburg, became a feminist and anti-fascist writer, and fled Nazi Germany with her daughter Helga in 1933, reaching the United States in 1942 after internment in France. Mother and daughter settled in Detroit, where Helga worked as a librarian at the Detroit Public Library and Alice taught German for a time as an adjunct instructor at Wayne State University. A Quaker-influenced pacifist, she wrote letters and joined peace groups as the U.S. escalated the war in Vietnam. On March 16, 1965, she set herself on fire on a Detroit street corner, having first considered the Wayne State campus, and died of her burns ten days later. She followed the example of the Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức, and her act was followed that year by Norman Morrison and Roger LaPorte. She is honored in Vietnam, and a square in Berlin was named for her in 2003.
Highlights
- First person in the U.S. known to self-immolate against the Vietnam War (1965)
- Taught German at Wayne State University
- Fled Nazi Germany in 1933
- Alice-Herz-Platz in Berlin named after her in 2003
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1950s–1960s
Wayne State University
She taught German here as an adjunct instructor and first planned her protest for the campus.