Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust

Ages 10 to 17, Grades 6 to 12

A young readers’ edition of the bestselling book from Auschwitz survivor Hédi Fried that answers lasting questions about the Holocaust.Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis arrested her family and transported them to Auschwitz. While there, apart from enduring the daily horrors at the concentration camp, she and her sister were forced into hard labor before being released at the end of the war.After settling in Sweden, Hédi devoted her life to educating young people about the Holocaust. In her 90s, she decided to take the most common questions, and her answers, and turn them into a book so that children all over the world could understand what had happened.This is a deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.“Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.”

—Kirkus ReviewsThe perfect conversation starter for educators to teach young people about the reality of the Holocaust from lived experience.Wonderful companion piece to Art Speigelman’s Maus.In the wake of recent reports that a shocking proportion of young people in the US know little to nothing about the Holocaust, alongside a concerning new wave of antisemitism in the US and Europe, this deeply personal first-hand account is especially timely.

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. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Peirene Stevns Translation Prize. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at University College London, specialising in literature and human rights.Laila Ekboir graduated from the University of Southern California in 2010, with a BA in English Literature. With her degree in hand, she returned to her home country, Argentina, where she took a workshop on picture book illustration. She knew at once that she'd found her passion in illustration because it combined her love of words and storytelling with the joy of creating art and visual communication.