Publishers Weekly
07/25/2022
Holocaust survivor Friedman recalls her experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau as a young child in this heartrending memoir. Born in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland, in 1938, Friedman’s first memories were of life in the Jewish ghetto. Suffering starvation, disease, and constant violence, she and her parents managed to survive several deportations and mass killings by the Gestapo. In autumn 1943, however, the family was deported to a slave labor camp in central Poland, and then taken in July 1944 to Auschwitz, where Friedman and her mother were separated from her father. “It’s estimated that more than 230,000 children entered the Auschwitz complex,” she notes. “Almost all of them were murdered in Birkenau within hours of dismounting from the cattle cars.... So why wasn’t I?” That question lingers over her harrowing memories of the camp, including the time she and her block mates huddled for hours in the concrete anteroom for one of the gas chambers before being sent back to their barrack. After the war, Tova was reunited with her father, emigrated with her parents to America, married, and began sharing “the lessons of the Holocaust” in Israel and the U.S. Enriched by Friedman’s earnest reckonings with her trauma and hard-won sense of optimism, this is a poignant testament to survival and faith. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
I read this book with gratitude and urgency. Gratitude for the courage Tova Friedman has shown in deciding to share her story. We are all the beneficiaries of such powerful witness. The urgency comes from the knowledge that as time marches on such vivid voices are becoming increasingly rare. Read this book, cherish the lessons. It is a book rooted in the terrible events of another time, but the truths it reveals are eternal.”–Fergal Keane, author of Wounds: A Memoir of War & Love
“One of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau tells her remarkable story… A heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive account from the 20th century’s darkest days.”–Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"An unforgettable and deeply moving story. Malcolm Brabant brilliantly evokes the world of the ghetto and of Auschwitz through the eyes of Tova Friedman, a small child who survived the brutality of the Holocaust."–Jeremy Bowen, author of Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East
“[A] heartrending, lyrical account of a young girl’s survival during the Holocaust.”—Reader’s Entertainment Magazine
"Absolutely riveting book. Please read it."—Judy Woodruff, lead presenter and Managing Editor at PBS Newshour
“This is the real thing, the horrors of the Holocaust brought shudderingly to life, and all from the point of view of a small child who could barely read or recognize numbers… It is an angry book, but it is also required reading.”—The Jewish Chronicle
"Possibly the most astonishing book I've ever read."—Sarah Gorrell, BBC Radio Sussex
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-06-22
One of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau tells her remarkable story.
When Friedman and her mother miraculously walked out of the extermination camp together in April 1945, her mother said one word: “Remember.” Now 83, Friedman has penned a memoir with the assistance of veteran war reporter Brabant, seeking to “immortalize what happened, to ensure that those who died are not forgotten. Nor the methods that were used to exterminate them.” Beginning at age 2, Friedman shares gut-wrenching memories of life in the Jewish ghetto in German-occupied central Poland known as Tomaszów Mazowiecki, where she and her family were forced to live. Eking by in overcrowded, often squalid conditions, they struggled to find food, witnessed the disappearances of family and friends, and lived in constant fear. “When I heard heavy boots,” she writes, “I knew trouble was imminent.” Throughout this time, the only certainty was her parents’ enduring love. “Beyond them…there was nothing but the abyss,” she writes. When she was 5, Friedman and her family were sent to Starachowice labor camp, and the author shares the raw details of the brutality and horrors that she and her family experienced. Then she and her mother were relocated to Auschwitz-Birkenau, while her father was sent to Dachau. Through luck and determination, they managed to cheat death multiple times; however, the psychological effects would last a lifetime. Although Friedman and her parents survived, their struggles did not end after the camps. They continued to face antisemitism and struggled to reassimilate. In one of the most haunting passages, the author describes a “recurring nightmare” of “walking among dead bodies…after which further sleep is impossible.” Despite the many horrifying ordeals she has endured, she remains courageous and faithful: “Everything I do, every decision I make today, is forged by the forces that surrounded me in my formative years.” Actor Ben Kingsley provides the foreword.
A heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive account from the 20th century’s darkest days.
