Description

The harrowing, moving and poignant account of one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz: a girl who was only five years old when she was sent to an extermination camp, and was one of the few people who entered a gas chamber and lived to tell her story.

‘I am a survivor. That comes with a survivor’s obligation to represent one and half million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. They cannot speak. So I must speak on their behalf.’

With a special foreword by Sir Ben Kingsley.

‘Every so often a book arrives that demands to be read’ John Humphrys

‘An unforgettable and deeply moving story’ Jeremy Bowen

AN INCREDIBLE STORY OF COURAGE, RESILIENCE AND SURVIVAL

Tova Friedman was one of the youngest people to emerge from Auschwitz. After surviving the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Central Poland where she lived as a toddler, Tova was five when she and her parents were sent to a Nazi labour camp, and almost six when she and her mother were forced into a packed cattle truck and sent to Auschwitz II, also known as the Birkenau extermination camp, while her father was transported to Dachau.

During six months of incarceration in Birkenau, Tova witnessed atrocities that she could never forget, and experienced numerous escapes from death. She is one of a handful of Jews to have entered a gas chamber and lived to tell the tale.

As Nazi killing squads roamed Birkenau before abandoning the camp in January 1945, Tova and her mother hid among corpses. After being liberated by the Russians they made their way back to their hometown in Poland. Eventually Tova’s father tracked them down and the family was reunited.

In The Daughter of Auschwitz, Tova immortalizes what she saw, to keep the story of the Holocaust alive, at a time when it is in danger of fading from memory. She has used those memories that have shaped her life to honour the victims. Written with award-winning former war reporter Malcolm Brabant, this is an extremely important book. Brabant’s thorough research has helped Tova recall her experiences in searing detail. Together they have painstakingly recreated Tova’s extraordinary story about one of the worst ever crimes against humanity.

‘I read this book with gratitude and urgency’ Fergal Keane

‘[A] vividly written and compelling story’ Lindsey Hilsum

‘A truly remarkable book’ Christine Lampard, Lorraine

Publisher Review

Every so often a book arrives that demands to be read. This is such a book. It should be compulsory reading for those who know little of one of humanity's greatest crimes and the awe-inspiring bravery of those like Tova Friedman who survived to tell their story. But also for those who think of the Holocaust as ancient history. It is not. It is an eternal reminder that evil needs only ignorance to flourish. That is the true value of this remarkable book * John Humphrys * Tova Friedman's vividly written and compelling story serves as proof that after suffering unimaginable cruelty and trauma, it is still possible to forge a life. This unforgettable book not only ensures we remember the horrors of the Holocaust, but can see the dangers of anti-semitism and other forms of racism today * Lindsey Hilsum * 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 * 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 *