About Tova Friedman
Tova Friedman is a renowned therapist, social worker, author, and academic. She is among the few survivors of the Holocaust who were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The story of her life was recounted in the 1998 book Kinderlager, and her grandchild started a TikTok account for her, where she makes videos about what she experienced at Auschwitz and answers questions from young people.
She co-wrote the memoir The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival, and Hope with writer Malcolm Brabant. The book was released in 2022.
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Tova Friedman Nationality
Friedman holds American nationality. Talking of her heritage, the renowned therapist is originally from Poland.
Tova Friedman Age
Friedman is 85 years old as of 2023. She was born on January 27, 1938, in Gdynia, Poland.
| Age (2023) | Age (2024) |
|---|---|
| 85 years old | 86 years old |
Education
Tova received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Brooklyn College, a Master of Arts in Black literature from the City College of New York, and a Master of Arts in social work from Rutgers University.
Tova Friedman Husband & Children
Friedman was married to her husband of 60 years, Maier Friedman. Sadly, her husband is no more. In their marriage, Tova and Maier had four children together.
Tova Friedman Tattoo
Tova was referred to simply as inmate A27633 for the duration of a whole year and a half, during the ages of five and six. As soon as she landed at Auschwitz, a Jewish prisoner tattooed the number on her arm.
In one of the several videos Friedman posts on the social media platform TikTok, she says; “The woman who wrote this tattoo was so frustrated about tattooing children that her hands were shaking.”
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Tova Friedman’s Story: How Did She Survive The Holocaust?
As soon as World War II started, Friedman’s family, who had left Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland relocated back there. Close to five thousand Jews were confined to a ghetto of six four-story buildings in horrible conditions.
As time went by, the population of the ghetto started to decrease due to malnutrition, incidents of mass shootings, and deportations. Later on, her family was relocated to Starachowice, where her parents were employed by an ammunition manufacturing company.
Her father prompted her to hide in a hole above their home’s ceiling when kids started being deported from the neighborhood.
She was kept in the Kinderlager, or “children’s camp,” and she would persevere the malnutrition and a journey to the gas killing chamber on October 7.
This was the same day that the chamber’s machinery stopped working because other prisoners had earlier blown up an explosive inside the chamber.
She was further saved from one of the cremation facilities because the Nazi officers in charge of the chamber did not have her tattooed number on their roster.
Tova and her mother hid among the bodies in the infirmary when the Nazis evacuated the camp in January 1945 and prepared to send the remaining inmates on a death march. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army found them and set them free.
As soon as the war ended, Friedman and her mother relocated to their hometown. She was not aware of her father’s whereabouts at the time, but seven months later, he came home, and her family came back together.
However, it was difficult to cope with life in Poland. Not only had her parents lost everything, but discrimination against Jews was also at its worst. Her parents made the decision to immigrate to the US when she was 12 years old.
