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Hedi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis snatched her family from their home in Eastern Europe and transported them to Auschwitz. 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. With sensitivity and candour, this deeply human book urges us never to forget and never to repeat.
About the author
Hédi Fried (1924–2022) was an author and psychologist. She was deeply committed to working for democratic values and against racism. She was born in the town of Sighet, in Romania, was transported to Auschwitz in 1944, and worked in several labour camps, eventually ending up in Bergen-Belsen. After liberation, she moved to Sweden with her sister.
Her bestselling autobiography, Fragments of a Life: the road to Auschwitz, was published in English and Swedish in the 1990s.
Alice E. Olsson is a literary translator, writer, and editor working across Swedish and English. She has served as the Cultural Affairs Adviser at the Embassy of Sweden in London and is the recipient of a fellowship as well as multiple grants from the Swedish Arts Council. She has been shortlisted for the 2020 Peirene Stevns Translation Prize and the 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize.
Summary
‘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-eight, 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.
Foreword
There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.'
Additional text
‘Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust defies genre … a deeply personal account of her past, told in simple, straightforward language that most preteens can understand … Since the book is intended for younger readers, Fried is free to be didactic. Everything is a lesson … Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is an invaluable means of introducing students to the complexities of the Holocaust. And it will do for Fried what she seeks to do for her parents: to keep her memory and name alive.’
