In a world where many people lack a true understanding of what happened during the Holocaust, one survivor – Tova Friedman – is sharing her story on TikTok with the help of her grandson, Aron Goodman. The duo has more than 500,000 followers and nearly 9.0 million likes on Tiktok so far.
It all started with Goodman posting a video about his grandmother on YouTube. He decided to start posting clips of that video on TikTok and was surprised by the response he received as many people took an interest in learning more about his grandmother – and more about the horrors of the holocaust.
“I noticed a lot of antisemitism on social media as well as (the fact that) my curriculum in my school for the Holocaust wasn’t adequate. There was no Holocaust as part of the history discussion,” Aron Goodman said of his decision to post his grandmother’s story on TikTok. He saw it as an opportunity to teach.
Tova Friedman was just 5 years old when she was taken from her ‘Jewish ghetto’ and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland with her mother. She was one of 5,000 children taken from the small town of Tomaszow Mazowiecki in Poland. Upon arrival, she was given a ‘27-6-33’ tattoo on her arm.
While most children were killed almost immediately, Tova was spared and ended up spending the next 12 months at the concentration camp. Of the 5,000 children from her town, she was just one of five to survive the concentration camp. She was 11 years old when she finally left and headed to the United States.
She explained how children were targeted by Adolf Hitler and the Germans because they were seen as ‘useless.’ There was also a fear that children would survive and grow up to be witnesses who told of the horrors of Auschwitz. And they were right as Tova Friedman and many others have shared their story.
“All I wanted was to eat. It’s very hard to explain to people who don’t understand hunger, the different types of hunger. Somebody asked, ‘How did God feel to you in the camp?’ And they said, ‘Like a piece of bread.’ That’s all you wanted,” Tova said of the intense hunger she experienced at the concentration camp.
Tova Friedman Describes Childhood in the US
Tova Friedman eventually came to the United States at the age of 11 and was surprised to learn that American children didn’t experience what she was forced to experience. She wasn’t aware that her life story was unique to her and couldn’t understand how Americans lived a normal life while she suffered.
“I was shocked when I spoke to kids my age. I was 11 years old, and they were telling me about all kinds of experiences when they were children — vacations, summer camps — I couldn’t believe it. I thought what I experienced was what the world experienced,” she told TODAY in an interview about her TikTok success.
She also talked about her tattoo – which draws a lot of interest on social media, since most people have never seen an authentic Auschwitz tattoo. While she was given an opportunity to remove the tattoo upon arriving in the US, she decided to keep it as proof that Auschwitz happened and proof that she survived it.
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“I am glad I kept mine because it’s a witness. I feel as if my number is there to say, ‘You think this never happened? Look.’” If you’d like to hear more about her story and experience at Auschwitz, don’t forget to follow her on TikTok – or TovaTok, as her account is called. She’s always answering questions from users!
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