QUESTIONS I AM ASKED ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

Answers to the questions that a Jewish Swedish Romanian educator and survivor of Auschwitz fielded most often.

Until her death in 2022, Fried lectured in schools about one of the most horrific events in living memory. Translated from Swedish, this work is an approachable adaptation of her 2019 volume. Illustrated with plain, almost stiff artwork in muted colors, common questions such as “Why did Hitler hate the Jews?” and “Why did you not fight back?” are interspersed with more surprising queries. Fried’s shock at being asked, “What was the best?” is palpable, yet she gives as much consideration to this question as she does to the others. In response, she describes how she and Olga, another girl, risked their lives to smuggle a few leaves into the barracks. An account that could be framed as utter horror becomes, in Fried’s telling, a moment of breathless joy. Ekboir’s accompanying illustration, sunlight bursting through a tree’s canopy, evokes an impossibly distant hope. Fried closes by reminding her readers that “Are you able to forgive?” is not the important question when there’s work to be done. She draws parallels to contemporary issues such as the prejudice faced by refugees and “racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Romanyism, and Islamophobia.” In her pragmatic words, the horrors of the Holocaust become if not comprehensible then perhaps a little easier for readers to wrap their minds around.

Sheds light on a devastating topic with empathy, sensitivity, and honesty.