Tova Friedman

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back just over one week to April 2, 2023 for our in-person event with Auschwitz Survivor Tova Friedman. This event was our first event as part of our new special exhibition, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. which runs through August 13, 2023. Information on this exhibit can be found at ReaganLibrary.com/Auschwitz. Last November, we were contacted by the amazing staff of Holocaust Museum LA. They recommended we speak with Dr. Maria Zalewska, Executive Director of the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial Foundation about a book she had put together called Honeycake and Latkes. The book is a beautiful collection of heirloom recipes and stories from Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors. She connected us with Tova Friedman whose New York Times bestselling memoir, The Daughter of Auschwitz, shares her string of near-death experiences in a Jewish Ghetto, a Nazi labor camp and Auschwitz. One of her recipes is also in Honeycake and Latkes. Tova is one of the very few Jews to have entered a gas chamber and lived to tell the tale. Tova has been quoted as saying, “I am a survivor. 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.” Maria and Tova sat down in conversation to discuss Honeycake and Latkes, as well as The Daughter of Auschwitz.