«Dgive a voice to those who cannot speak, represent the million and a half Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. That’s the task, or rather the “obligation” of the survivor».
To say it with the pain of deportation still in my soul is Tova Friedman, 85 years olda survivor of the Holocaust and, today, one TikTok star thanks to his 17-year-old nephew.
Tova Friedman the Holocaust survivor on TikTok
The videos recorded by the boy in which his grandmother recounts her experience in the German extermination camp of Auschwitz and anecdotes from her life they reached 75 million hits since September 2021 when the “social experiment” began.
And it is precisely these numbers that have prompted Ms Friedman to continue explaining how important they are «to tell and pass on the atrocities of the Holocaust all means», including social networks that reach the youngest directly.
Tova Friedman, the Auschwitz survivor who talks about the Holocaust on TikTok (Getty Images)
The need not to forget
Friedman in the various videos traces his life starting from when, four-year-old girl had escaped mass executions in the Polish city in which he lived with his family for then get on one of the trains headed to hell on earth two years later where little Tova witnessed terrible atrocities.
But the old lady who has talked about the Holocaust for most of her adult life is aware of how much more there is. «I was speechless when I discovered the degree of ignorance detected by a survey among young Americans, commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany» said Friedman during the presentation of his memoir book “The girl from Auschwitz”.
Tova Friedman and ignorance about the massacre of the Jews
“Two-thirds of those interviewed had no idea how many Jews had died in the Holocaust. Almost fifty percent could not name a concentration camp or a ghetto. According to twenty-three percent, the Holocaust is a legend or has been exaggerated. Seventeen percent said it was acceptable to support neo-Nazi positions.”
But in Europe things are no better. «In 2018 a similar survey, this time in Europe, showed that a third of those questioned knew just as little about the Holocaust or she had never even heard of him. Also, twenty percent thought Jews had too much influence in business and finance,” he added.
Hatred quickly spreads
Also warning against one of the fastest growing phenomena «hatred, hatred of all kinds, but especially against minorities. Wherever you are in the world, I implore you, do not repeat the history of which I have been a victim.”
The most watched video was the one in which the woman showed the identification number “A-27633” tattooed on her arm in the concentration camp, the one in which, however, also sends an important message. «The Holocaust began less than twenty years after Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In the Internet age, change can happen much more rapidly than it did eighty years ago. We must always be vigilant and courageous enough to raise our voices to be heard.”
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