Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman: 'You were no longer a human being -- you were no longer yourself.'

May 11—KINGSTON — On Wednesday night at the Friedman Jewish Community Center, Tova Friedman, one of the youngest people to have survived the Holocaust, told about 350 in attendance about the evening when she arrived at Auschwitz.

Friedman said her mom always told her the truth.

"I asked my mom what the smell was and she pointed to the smoke coming out of tall stacks," she said. "They were burning people."

Friedman, 85, captivated the audience with her graphic account of her experience at Auschwitz and of her survival and her life over the past 80 years.

Tova Friedman was born on Sept. 7, 1938. in Gdynia, Poland, a suburb of Danzig. Her family came from Tomaszow Mazowiecki, a small town near Lodz, Poland, and returned there as soon as the war broke out.

Tova is among the youngest people to survive the Nazi Holocaust, and one of the few Jewish children to have lived through the nightmare ordeals of Auschwitz. She was one of 5,000 Jewish children living in Tomaszow Mazowiecki before World War II, and at the end of the war, one of only five children from that town who survived.

More than 150 members of Tova's family were murdered.

Friedman detailed the horrific story of her time at Auschwitz through the eyes of a little girl. She said she is often asked how she and her parents and two aunts survived, and her only explanation is, 'It must have been luck."

But as indelible as the tattoo on her left arm, so are Tova's memories.

"I remember it all very clearly," she said. "I was a five and a half year old child when I got on that train. But when I got to Auschwitz, I was a five and a half year old adult."

Friedman recounted her life in the concentration camp — how all prison endured unsanitary conditions like filthy bathrooms, limited meals, had work and mistreatment.

She said when she arrived at Auschwitz, she expected to be taken to the crematorium to die. But, she said it was late, so the new arrivals were instead taken to a barracks.

"The next day was Sunday, so there were no executions," Friedman said. "They were Christians! What kind of Christians were they?"

Friedman said when they were taken to the barracks, they were told to undress and her head was shaved.

"My mom told me they were checking to see if we were healthy," Friedman said. "If we weren't, we would have been killed. Instead, we were allowed to work."

Friedman said when she and her parents got on the train to go to Auschwitz, they were a family.

"But when we arrived at Auschwitz, we stopped being human beings — we were numbers. You were no longer a human being — you were no longer yourself."

Friedman said the Jewish prisoners lived in a world of constant fear and uncertainty.

"We never knew if the next hour would be our last," she said. "Yet many were so naive. They never imagined what would happen. But Hitler was smart — he had a plan. They killed children and elderly first and they killed educated people — doctors, lawyers, teachers. They killed education."

But Friedman said as a survivor, she felt she had to tell her story and tell the story of the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.

"Human beings are built to have resilience," she said. "If we're tested, we'll make it — and we will heal."

Tova and her parents arrived in the U.S. when she was 12 years old — that's when she began her education. They lived in Brooklyn, where she met and married her husband of 60 years, Maier Friedman (recently deceased).

Tova received her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Brooklyn College and a Master of Arts in Black literature from City College of New York.

Tova and her husband immigrated to Israel and lived there for over 10 years, where she taught at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. After returning to the U.S., she earned her Master of Arts in social work from Rutgers University and became the Director of Jewish Family Service of Somerset and Warren Counties for over 20 years and still works there as a therapist.

Tova has four children and eight grandchildren. She continues to share her story with students and audiences at public and private schools, at colleges and places of worship, and all over the country.

"I am a survivor," she said several times. "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."

In her memoir, "The Daughter of Auschwitz" — a New York Times bestseller — Tova immortalizes what she saw, to keep the story of the Holocaust alive, at a time when it's in danger of fading from memory. She has used those memories that have shaped her life to honor the victims.

The book was written with award-winning former war reporter Malcolm Brabant.

As busy as she has been over the years, her schedule has gotten even busier as she sees the discourse in the U.S. and worldwide concerning the Israel-Hamas war.

"Yes, I feel speaking out especially now is extraordinarily important," Tova said. "What's been going on is very upsetting. I can't just sit back. I want to point out, this hatred and these terrible demonstrations are not protests — they are inciting people. That's what happened before World War II in Germany. It's very reminiscent — the hatred, the fury, the prejudice, the meanness. I just can't sit back and not do what I can.

"I'm still alive I'm OK."

What Was The Holocaust?

—In 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to power through German democratic elections and turned Germany into a fascist regime. His main goal: Create a purified 'Aryan' nation.

—The Holocaust was one of the biggest atrocities of the 20th century, as it was the systematic persecution and murder of six million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. A total of 11 million people, including homosexuals, physically and mentally disabled, gypsies and others, were exterminated from 1938 to 1945.

—The Holocaust is said to have started on Nov. 10, 1938, with the Night of The Broken Glass (Kristallnacht), where the Nazi regime sponsored the burning and destruction of Jewish temples, homes and shops.

—Thousands of ghettos across Europe were established, designed to separate Jews from the rest of society. Concentration, labor, and eventually death camps were built to quicken the extermination process.

—Death camps used a poisonous gas called Zyklon B and carbon monoxide to kill gas chambers full of people. In addition, people were also beaten, shot and starved to death.

Most notable camps:

Auschwitz-Birkenau (concentration & forced labor camp)

Belzec (extermination camp)

Chelmno (extermination camp)

Majdanek (extermination camp)

Maly Trostenets (extermination camp)

Sobibór (extermination camp)

Treblinka (extermination camp)

Source: https://www.tovatok.com/the-holocaust.

Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.