A powerful hard-hitting book about the Holocaust from a very young girl who was incarcerated and survived Auschwitz. It is truly a memorable read on several levels and evokes many emotions and, whilst the subject matter is unbelievably horrific, the book isn't difficult to read in style at all being incredibly well written. Definitely thought provoking whilst being uplifting in how people can survive such atrocities. A must read about this difficult period in history, so we can learn and hopefully prevent anything like it happening again.

This book was very educational and thought provoking read, a book that I think is essential for people from all works of life to put on their "must read" list. As Tova Friedman was one of the youngest people to survive from Auschwitz we are blessed that she was able to re-live her story in such a matter of fact and detailed way. I learnt a lot more from this book (then I have from others) about the establishment and realisation of the concentration camps and the destruction of lives of Jewish/Polish citizens which came from their homes and communities being turned into a ghetto and for their human rights to be stripped. I am getting upset and angry just thinking about the experiences I have read in this book but all the more reason to recommend it to others.

This book was absolutely brutal!
I have never had a reading experience like it.
I have never wanted to keep reading a book, yet put it down at the same time. I was completely engrossed in Tova's story but at the same time, it was incredibly hard to read most of the time. I had to read this in small chunks, and not in one big sitting like I usually like to. I had to keep reminding myself that this was TRUE and not just a piece of of fiction.

The spirit of Tova and her family - particularly her mother is something that we can all learn from.

There are so many parts of Tova's story that will stay with me. This book really brings the Holocaust to life.
I, like so many others know a lot about the Holocaust from History lessons, and films but nothing has made me feel like this book has.

Like I say, this is probably the hardest book I have ever read, but no matter how tough it is to read - Tova and her family had to LIVE IT! I urge everyone to read this book.
We must NEVER let this happen again!

This is the book that everyone should read. I have read many books set during the holocaust, met survivors of Auschwitz but this story was very moving. It has been well written and whilst a difficult read due to the subject matter, it is easy to read.. Be prepared to cry.
. Tova was born the year before the war began in Poland to a Jewish ffamily and describes her experiences as the family were moved around the town I which they lived before being moved into Birkenau by the Nazis. The courage if her oarents
, particularly her mother's insight into how to survive the atrocities.
This is a story that should be shared with all generations and ethnicities. Unfortunately, similar atrocities are still happening today.

This is an extremely hard book to read but one I feel necessary so the past is not forgotten.

Tova was born just prior to the start of World War II; her earliest memories being of living in the ghetto her family and parents were sent to by the Nazi's. From the ghetto, she and her parents are sent to a labour camp; Tova is 5 years old. At the age of 6, Tova and her mum are separated from her dad for the first time as they are placed in different cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Tova describes her experiences from the eyes of an innocent child trying to make sense of the horrors she hears and witnesses every day. How someone, let alone a child, can survive what went on in that hell and come out the other side and live even close to a 'normal' life is beyond me. It is testament to the strength of her mother and the lessons she taught Tova that she survived and became the woman she did.

Many thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this powerful, heart-breaking but uplifting book. This should be required reading for all school children and adults alike.

I must say I am a fan of both fiction adn non-fiction when it comes to historical and wartime reads. And this book was one I couldn't put down. It is a story that will break your heart and make you cry and the fact that is is a true story, a memoir, makes it all that much more poignant.

This is the story of Tova Friedman, it is a hard story but as with any story of this time it is a story that needs to be read to understand what the people went through, suffered and endured. It is a remarkable read and also inspirational to think of how this young girl/woman survived and is still here today to tell her amazing story.

This is a book that everyone should read as it really brings to life the hardship, courage and fear that many people had to deal with and in some instances overcome. It was a tragic time and one we hope never happens again.

The Daughter of Auschwitz by Tova Friedman; and Malcolm Brabant was a very powerful memoir by one of the youngest ever survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, We follow her childhood growing up during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, which was a Nazi labor camp, and Auschwitz.

Tova Friedman was only four years old when she was sent to a Nazi labor camp at the start of World War II. While friends and family were murdered in front of her eyes, the only weapon that Tova and her parents possessed was the primal instinct to survive at all costs. Fate intervened when, at the age of six, Tova was sent to a gas chamber, but walked out alive, saved by German bureaucracy. Not long afterwards, she cuddled a warm corpse to hide from Nazis rounding up prisoners for the Death March to Germany.

WoW............This book took my breath away and was one of the best books I have read in a while. You will need tissues and lots of these. I am so glad Tova's story was told Sending big Hugs her way x

Big Thank you to Hachette AU for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I have read many books about the Holocaust
But this one was hard to read because it came from a child.
It must of been hard for a child to go through all that and then to find out as an adult nothing had changed

A few years ago I had the privilege and honour to spend time with someone, who had escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia as a child in 1939, while recording a documentary for the BBC. I’ve never forgotten that time or the stories she shared of Sir Nicholas Winton and The Kinder Transport and the evil of the Nazi regime – I hope I never will, it had a profound effect on me.

As I sat down to read The Daughter of Auschwitz I more or less knew what I’d be getting. A harrowing account of a child’s survival against all odds during a time of inexplicable torture, hatred and hopelessness. This book gave me so much more and thanks to her heart wrenching account of her days trying to live, simply see the next day, Tola gave me a book I’m unlikely to forget – just like that time was with Vera Gissing when she opened up her home to me.

There was one sentence that stayed with me throughout the book, a fantastic line that summed up how hopeless and helpless their situation was:

We, as people, could do nothing to stop these murders, nor the next. There was no retribution. No eye for an eye. They were killing us with impunity.

The word impunity really struck a chord with me and while I continued to read the book I couldn’t get it out of my head.

This is no soft book, it truly relays the desperation Tola faced, her mother faced, trying to see where the next piece of bread would come from and to protect her child from almost certain death. I mean this is a book that simply begs to be read, it’s vital to keep these horrific stories alive for generations to come. There are people to this day who do not believe that these events happened, it’s all make believe. We owe it to the people who survived and to the people that perished at the hands of these evil monsters to keep shining a light on the injustice.

I do hope you take the time to read this book and if you do, I hope you too are moved by Tola’s words as I was.

The memoir is well written. The story was hard to read but kept me engaged in reading Tola’s experiences. The books around Auschitz are always centred on adults. The atrocities suffered are impossible to imagine and mankind’s evilness. I liked the fact that the memoir went on to explain how Tola was able to educate and inspire so many. A moving memoir which brings us to examine what is really important in our lives.

Fantastic memoir of a time that many wish didn't happen. Difficult to read at times but for a very good reason.

Having read such a detailed memoir, and one of a Holocaust survivor at that, I literally could talk ages about this book, because it made me mych more knowledagble about this dark and inhuman period of time.

Mrs. Tova Friedman (born Tola Grossman) talks about her torturous times before, during, and after the Holocaust. Being born one year before the war started, and being born a Jew at that, unfortunately she knew war all too well. It was terrifying to read how much has she suffered through. How she was transferred to Birkenau, how before that she was in another concentration camp, how she was afraid every day that she would lose her life. I cannot fathom how a child of five and six years old managed to survive all this, and for that only this woman has my infinite respect and my sincerest apologies that humanity dissapointed in that way.

What also angered me was that, even after having survived Birkenau, Jews were still discriminated by the Christian Orthodoxes. It's ridiculous how much stupidity and criminality dwells in the minds of humans. And I admired the fact how she was able to adapt in her new life in America, and how she met Maier (her husband). Especially her staying in Isarel for certain years in her life, also getting involved in anither war there, my soul was honestly hurting for her and her children.

A figure that I had complete respect for was her mother Reizel. Firstly, she had immense resilience and she disciplined her daughter and taught her to survive, and I don't even want to imagine how Mrs. Friedman would have been without her mother. On the other hand, I had mixed feelings about her father. Although he was a man that suffered, being a Jew Officer (and thankfully to him writing down the events, we have more information about the Nazi's atrocities), his behaviour after the war saddened me; but I could understand him being in a dark place.

I'm happy that Mrs. Friedman could help people, and I find it fitting that she chose to become a therapist. I'm happy that she married and had a family, that she had a professional carrer, that she went again to that wretched place as a grown woman. So, in other words, thank you Mr. Brabant, for helping Mrs. Friedman in writing the book, and thank you Mrs. Friedman for sharing your story with us, and I sincerely hope that you're healthy and happy.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! This book is already out since September 1st, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

An excellent report of life in the Holocaust. Not only is this as Tova remembers but also her dad wrote many things down. Another book that has to be read so people never forget.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Tola was a baby when World War11 started. She lived with her mother and father in the small mid Polish town of Tomaszow Mazowiecki. She knew nothing about peacetime as a small child, only hatred and war. The town once had a thriving Jewish community but bit by bit Jews were taken away to death camps or shot dead. Her wise family managed to keep her safe, but inevitably they too were sent to a Nazi labour camp when Tola was five and she was left all alone while her parents were forced to work. Her mother taught her well. She was hidden away and stayed where she was left until her parents came home.
When she was nearly six her family were sent away in a cattle truck where they were packed together like sardines in a tin and endured an arduous journey lasting hours and hours, standing up and with no facilities. They were on their way to Auschwitz where they were separated, her father taken to Dachau. Tola witnessed atrocities daily; she had to hide with a corpse in her bed to avoid being discovered. She accepted that her life would one day be over because so many families and individuals were sent to the gas chambers to be exterminated. She was hungry all of her stay there and her body became skeletal. She was amongst a small number of children that survived her six-month stay there, especially as she had actually been taken into a gas chamber. Tola and her mother hid amongst the dead as the Nazis fled the camp and Russian squads saved their day. Amazingly they returned to their hometown and soon after, Tola’s father was reunited with his girls and once again they were a family.
This well written biography does not end there though. It continues Tola’s life story when her family settled in America. Tola changed her name to Tova and married the love of her life. She is now Tova Friedman and with award winning journalist Malcolm Brabant she has written this work of Historical nonfiction. Her motive is that she keeps the memory alive. She says '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.' This is her mission, to keep the Holocaust alive, lest we forget.
I found this true story profoundly difficult to read. I have read several harrowing biographies on the same theme, but this one stands out because of the age of Tola, an innocent child who ponders over these chilling memories. She is resilient, brave and kind-hearted. Now in her mid-eighties she is haunted by what she saw, brutality, despicable acts of war and atrocities beyond belief. She helps other people who are traumatised, carrying on from the work of her own revered therapist.

Another very well written book about the horrors of the holocaust. I find books like this fascinating but in a terribly sad and dreadful way. But I think it’s something that will continue to be important to talk about. And books like this allow for a totally different perspective compared to things taught on a history syllabus at school. I’ve certainly learned a lot from books of this nature. Thought provoking and very poignantly written.

Tova Friedman was one of the youngest people to emerge from Auschwitz. After surviving the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Central Poland where she lived as a toddler, Tova was five when she and her parents were sent to a Nazi labour camp, and almost six when she and her mother were forced into a packed cattle truck and sent to Auschwitz II, also known as the Birkenau extermination camp, while her father was transported to Dachau.
During six months of incarceration in Birkenau, Tova witnessed atrocities that she could never forget, and experienced numerous escapes from death. She is one of a handful of Jews to have entered a gas chamber and lived to tell the tale.
As Nazi killing squads roamed Birkenau before abandoning the camp in January 1945, Tova and her mother hid among corpses. After being liberated by the Russians they made their way back to their hometown in Poland. Eventually Tova's father tracked them down and the family was reunited.
In The Daughter of Auschwitz, Tova immortalizes what she saw, to keep the story of the Holocaust alive, at a time when it is in danger of fading from memory. She has used those memories that have shaped her life to honour the victims. Written with award-winning former war reporter Malcolm Brabant, this is an extremely important book. Brabant's thorough research has helped Tova recall her experiences in searing detail. Together they have painstakingly recreated Tova's extraordinary story about one of the worst ever crimes against humanity.
Wow a difficult book to read but totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Quercus Books
I just reviewed The Daughter of Auschwitz by Tova Friedman; Malcolm Brabant. #TheDaughterofAuschwitz #NetGalley

Firstly I would like to thank netgalley, Querous books,and the author Malcolm Brabant and Tova Friedman for an early copy of this book.

This is a memoir of a young child telling there story of the holocaust,Tova Friedman how she survived Auschwitz yes a story people should never forget.for me the book was all over the place and wasnt so engaging as other books I've read.it was an okay read.


This book is reviewed on goodreads and Amazon UK.

I was very keen to read The Daughter of Auschwitz after reading an interview online with co-authors Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

The book tells the story of Tova's family during and after World War 2,from former friends and neighbours snubbing them when the Germans enter their town and force the Jewish population into a cramped ghetto through their experiences in various Concentration Camps to their shock at the cold reception they received on returning home.

Tova was only 5 when she ended up in Auschwitz and while the barbarity and brutality of such places is common knowledge now it's particularly shocking to read that children were treated as appallingly as adults by the psychopaths and ghouls who ran and worked in such places. As a child Tova used to a life of persecution and death almost sees the horrors around her as normal and one of the most affecting scenes is when she cheerfully walks with a group of other children to a gas chamber thinking that's what happens to Jewish children and cheerfully telling her horrified Mother,who she passes on the way,where she's going. Amazing Tova survived that episode............and escaped death on several other occasions.

What shocked me almost as much in this book was the revelation that Jews who survived the camps were then persecuted,and even murdered,by anti-semitic Poles, including those who finished what the Germans started in Tova's home town where she states there is now no Jewish population.

Tova's childhood memories are backed by respected journalist Malcolm Brabant's research,archives and other eye-witness accounts.

A sobering read but an essential one .

This book offers a fascinating perspective, seeing the Holocaust through the eyes of a very young child. This brings a clarity of understanding to many situations which perhaps an adult would over-think. It is incredible to think that the authors managed to capture this original voice. As ever, reading such a memoir reminds me of the importance of such accounts remaining at the forefront of our collective consciousness so we do not forget and do not repeat.