I’m grateful to my good friend Freddie Spence, who, among their diverse talents, is a trauma specialist. Freddie gave me some useful pointers about unlocking nuggets of information buried within the amygdala, the almond-shaped part of the brain where emotions are remembered, analyzed and attached to associations.
One of the most invaluable resources that helped us construct this memoir was the contribution to the Yizkor book of Machel Grossman, Tova’s father. For giving us permission to quote liberally from Machel’s writing, I am indebted to JewishGen, the global home of Jewish genealogy, which owns the translation. I am also grateful for the generosity of Kirsten Gradel, widow of Morris Gradel, a distinguished Yiddish and Hebrew linguist, who translated Machel’s chilling description of the liquidation of the Tomaszów Mazowiecki ghetto.
I honor the poet Henryka Łazowertówna for her poignant work “The Little Smuggler”, which is contained in The Song Will Survive Intact, an anthology of poems about Jews under German occupation, edited by Michael Borwicz. Tova and I are most grateful to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for giving us permission to use the English translation in Patricia Heberer’s book, Children During the Holocaust.
Thank you also to Natalia Jeziorna of the Mordechaj Gebirtig Memorial in Kraków for allowing us to quote the lyrics of his song “Reizel”. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Gebirtig’s songs became anthems of resistance. The Memorial is working to keep his legacy alive at www.mordechaj-gebirtig.pl.
From the PBS NewsHour, I’m indebted to Sara Just, executive producer, and Morgan Till, foreign editor, for generously allowing me the time and space to work on this important project.
Thanks to my former BBC colleagues Caroline Wyatt, Rob Watson and Mandy Stokes, for providing encouragement and insightful feedback.
Shani Friedman, Tova’s youngest son, has my eternal gratitude for devoting so much time, for helping us to get the book over the finishing line and for being such a fine arbitrator when creative differences occasionally arose.
I acknowledge that during the months I was engrossed in the book, my normally cheerful disposition occasionally deserted me. Let the record show my profound gratitude to my wife, Trine Villemann, and our son, Lukas, for their forbearance. I’m so fortunate to have Trine in my corner. She’s one of the best journalists I’ve ever met, and her incisive reading, notes and suggestions were invaluable when it came to sharpening up some of my woollier thoughts.
And to Tova, thank you for trusting me. Mazel tov.
Photos
Plate 1: Tova’s father, Machel Grossman, 1932.
Plate 2: Tova’s mother, Reizel Grossman, 1948.
Plate 3: Machel (seated third from right) with his theater group, circa 1931.
Plate 4: A group of German soldiers and civilians look on as a Jewish man is forced to cut the beard of another in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, 1939.
Plate 5: Saint Wenceslas Church, the site of the selection on October 31, 1942, as the ghetto was liquidated. This building no longer exists.
Plate 6: German soldiers clearing the streets of Tomaszów Mazowiecki after deporting six thousand Jews from the ghetto to Treblinka, 1942.
Plate 7: Tova (in color on the left) and other child survivors display their tattoos to the Russian photographers following liberation from Birkenau, 1945.
Plate 8: Identification card given to Reizel by the International Red Cross to provide safe passage home from Birkenau, 1945.
Plate 9: Tova, age six and a half, returns to Tomaszów Mazowiecki, 1945.
Plate 10: Aunt Helen, shot by an anti-Semitic gang in Lodz in Poland, 1946 (Insert: Tova’s Aunt Helen).
Plate 11: Tova, Reizel and Machel in Landsberg Displaced Persons camp in Germany, 1948.
Plate 12: Tova (seated second from right) with her classmates at Landsberg Displaced Persons camp in Germany, 1950.
Plate 13: Machel and Sonia’s wedding in Israel, 1958.
Plate 14: Tova and Maier’s wedding in Brooklyn, USA, 1960.
Plate 15: Tova with Risa (Ruth), Gadi and Itaya in Israel, circa 1970.
Plate 16: Tova standing among the remains of a gas chamber on her first return to Birkenau, 1999.
Plate 17: Tova, Maier and their eight grandchildren, 2014.
Plate 18: Tova and her family at her grandchildren Ari and Eitan’s Bar Mitzvah, 2014.
Plate 19: Tova’s daughter Ruth and her children.
Plate 20: Tova shares her story at Calvin University’s January Series in Michigan, USA, 2015.
Plate 21: Tova with students at Delaware Valley Regional High School in New Jersey, USA, 2016.
Plate 22: Tova returns to Birkenau with her daughter Itaya and four grandchildren, 2016.
Plate 23: Tova and Maier Friedman, 2019.
Plate 24: Tova attends the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz with other survivors, 2020. She is holding hands with Ronald Lauder, the President of the World Jewish Congress.
~
Kind permission has been granted to use the English translation of the poem “The Little Smuggler” by Henryka Łazowertówna, published in Children during the Holocaust (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2011). The poem was originally written in Polish in 1942, in an edition by Borwicz.
Plate 4: a Jewish man cutting the beard of another, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Instytut Pamięci Narodowej; Plate 5: Saint Wenceslas Church, courtesy of the Jerzy Pawlik Collection; Plate 9: Tova’s aunt Helen, courtesy of Pearl Belkowitz private collection; Plate 20: Tova Friedman speaking at Calvin University, courtesy of the January Series, Calvin University; Plate 19: Tova Friedman at Delaware Valley Regional High School, courtesy of Rick Epstein; Plate 21: Tova and Maier Friedman, 2019, courtesy of Lynette Seader; Plate 22: Tova Friedman attending the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, courtesy of Shahar Azran.
ISBN-13: 9780369732989
The Daughter of Auschwitz
Copyright © 2022 by Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant
This publication contains opinions and ideas of the author. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The reader should seek the services of a competent professional for expert assistance or professional advice. Reference to any organization, publication or website does not constitute or imply an endorsement by the author or the publisher. The author and the publisher specifically disclaim any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from the use or application of any information contained in this publication.