The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope by Tova Friedman
“I am a survivor. That comes with a survivor's obligation to represent one and a half million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. They cannot speak. So I must speak on their behalf.” (Friedman)
The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope by Tova Friedman depicts the experience of a child in both a Jewish ghetto and concentration camp during World War II. As one of the survivors, it is Friedman’s job to speak out both for herself and for those who did not live to tell their own stories. As anti-semitism spikes and the Holocaust is at risk of being forgotten, it is important that Tova speaks out and uses her life story to educate people and honor victims.
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Jewish people were neglected, treated as animals, and forced to suffer long and painful deaths. Those who were not useful as workers would be killed at any given moment. Jews lived a life of uncertainty, at risk of being killed at any moment. Friedman recounts her experience, saying “Ever since I was born, I had inhabited a world where being Jewish meant you were destined to die” (Friedman). At the age of six years old, Tova and so many like her felt, at their core, that they were born only to die. That, as Jews, they were destined to a slow and painful death. Looking back, it is difficult to try to conceptualize treatment of that intensity. The experiences that the Jews faced were so incredibly dehumanizing and violent that it is uncomfortable to think