In this powerful middle grade adaptation of the bestselling adult memoir of the same name, New York Times bestselling author Tova Friedman recounts her experiences as one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust. A Sydney Taylor Notable Book!

At the tender age of five years old, Tola Grossman was sent to a Nazi labor camp. As World War II was breaking out around them, the only thing Tola and her parents were left with was the instinct to survive at all costs. Tola’s life became a series of miraculous close calls, from being saved from a gas chamber to successfully hiding from the Nazis as they were rounding people up.

In this evocative account of one young girl’s survival, Tova Friedman chronicles the atrocities she witnessed while at Auschwitz and, ultimately, the sources of hope and courage she and her family found to persist against all odds.

This unforgettable true story is a testament to a mother’s love, a child’s will to live, and the duty to bear witness.

• A Child in Auschwitz: Follow five-year-old Tola through the gates of the notorious concentration camp, where she becomes one of the youngest to survive the horrors within.

• A Mother’s Sacrifice: Witness the unbreakable bond between Tova and her mother, who faces beatings and starvation to keep her daughter alive.

• Miraculous Survival: A gripping account of Tova’s incredible escapes, from being pulled from the line to the gas chamber to hiding under the body of a corpse during a final Nazi purge.

• Bearing Witness: An essential and accessible work of Jewish history for young readers that honors the 1.5 million children who were lost and carries their stories into the future.

About the Author

Tova Friedman lives in Highland Park, New Jersey. She is revered as one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz and as a campaigner against anti-Semitism. Tova is a retired therapist.