Gift #5 – Manya Friedman
Manya Friedman grew up very close to the German border in a small town called Sosnowiec.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Manya’s parents met with their close friends “to decide what to do”.
Manya’s parents and “everybody” were sure “Hitler would be stopped before reaching Central Poland”.
Unfortunately, the most feared, yet unexpected happened. According to Manya,
“from that day on there was no peaceful moment”. Interestingly and sadly, the “deportation” of citizens was instead referred by the Germans as a “resettlement”.
As Manya discusses decades later in an interview with the very own Holocaust Museum she later would volunteer for, not only were European Jews murdered, but also
“Pols, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, any race, women and children”. Not only were they murdered and killed “because of what they had done, but because of who they were”.
Eventually Manya would be forced into the Gleiwtiz camp, where there were very rarely days off and the few times she had what was considered to be “off” from forced labor responsibilities, she and other girls would be “checking each other’s lice” because of the desperately poor conditions (Benson, 2013).
Manya would later travel to various other camps over the next several years and end up at the Ravensbrück camp, where again they would be numbered, counted and accounted for every day as this was custom to Manya’s new way of life.
Ravensbrück also had a crematorium attached to it and from Manya’s account, the physical conditions were much worse than any other camp.
There were “10 times” as many prisoners as there were at other camps and any sense of cleanliness was from “a few drops of water” when it rained “to apply to your face to wake up”. Manya describes constantly seeing “naked corpses” and the only thing holding their bones together was their skin.[1]
When the White Buses arrived, Manya was “picked out suddenly” and did not know what the next few minutes of her life would look like.
Was she going to die? Was she selected to go to another camp? Was she chosen for other work? No, she was told to get on a “white truck.”23
Unfortunately, Manya and other girls that were also chosen were extremely weak, so weak a crate had to be brought to sit on the ground for them to physically get up into the truck.
They had no idea what this was and where they were going, but what could be worse than where they already were and had been? First thing they saw in the white truck: a package.
Manya and the others saw food. “Cocoa and sardines, milk powder, crackers”. Manya recalls that they ate the food immediately, some having severe digestion issues afterwards due to malnourishment for so long. Not even sure if this would be their last meal, they didn’t care.
Upon arrival in Sweden, she recalls “with uncertainty we followed the Red Cross workers, clutching the few filthy possessions we had salvaged while leaving the camps, or some remnants of the Red Cross packages given to us on the bus.
As we were taken to the showers, we followed with suspicion, hesitating to enter, not trusting anyone” (enter Citation).
Manya and others had to constantly be reminded that water came out of the shower (Benson, 2013). Hearing “the war’s over with” from others made it difficult to comprehend the rescue.
Manya would immigrate from Sweden to the United States in 1950 (Manya Friedman Obituary, 2013). She then would marry Joseph Friedman, another survivor of the Holocaust, and they would have two children together – Gary and Linda.
Around this time in Manya’s life, “she learned that her family had been deported to Auschwitz, where they perished” (Manya Friedman Obituary, 2013).
Her husband Joseph would later pass away in 1975, but Manya did not let overwhelming darkness discourage her.
Manya volunteered at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), spoke at various engagements with the Speaker’s Bureau and wrote multiple essays for the Memory Project, the museums online resource page for information about individual victims in the Holocaust and the Nazi persecution.
As Manya says in her interview during the USHMM First Person Series, we have a voice and “we can speak up”, and that’s exactly what Manya did and is still doing through the footprint she’s left.[2]
Manya remains a true legacy to the White Buses liberation. Her grit, survival physically, mentally and emotionally give her the tenacity to allow her story to live on.
Prisoner number 79357, will remain her name forever, but she chose to not let this name define her.
Hardened by deprivation, lies and a seemingly endless internment, they carried on. One day at a time.
[1] Manya Moszkowicz Friedman. Behind Every Name a Story. United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum, Transcript of Oral testimony. https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-reflections-testimonies/behind-every-name-a-story/manya-friedman
[2] Manya Moszkowicz Friedman. Behind Every Name a Story. United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum, Transcript of Oral testimony. https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-reflections-testimonies/behind-every-name-a-story/manya-friedman
