Questions I am asked about the Holocaust
Translator: Alice E. Olsson
Author: Hédi Fried
Publisher: Scribe UK
Year of Publication: 2019
‘There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.’
Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis snatched her family from their home in Eastern Europe and transported them to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered and she and her sister were forced into hard labour until the end of the war.
Now ninety-four, she has spent her life educating young people about the Holocaust and answering their questions about one of the darkest periods in human history. Questions like, ‘How was it to live in the camps?’, ‘Did you dream at night?’, ‘Why did Hitler hate the Jews?’, and ‘Can you forgive?’.
With sensitivity and complete candour, Fried answers these questions and more in this deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.
‘It is the telling detail that gives her testimony its particular power … This little book, with its reminder “there are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some … that have no answer”, is a moving record of one woman’s experience.’
NICK RENNISON, THE SUNDAY TIMES
‘This slim but powerful volume comprises answers to the questions she is most frequently asked … Fried answers with candour and thoughtfulness in a book that should be required reading for all young people.’
HANNAH BECKERMAN, THE OBSERVER
‘Reminds us all why we need to heed the lessons of the past.’
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