Awards

• Short-listed for August Prize, Best Swedish Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2017
• Short-listed for August Prize, Best Swedish Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2017 (Sweden)
• Short-listed for UKLA Book Awards 2020 (UK)
• Winner of USBBY Outstanding International Books List 2020 (United States)

Overview

‘There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.’ Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis snatched her family from their home in Eastern Europe and transported them to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered and she and her sister were forced into hard labour until the end of the war. Now ninety-eight, she has spent her life educating young people about the Holocaust and answering their questions about one of the darkest periods in human history. Questions like, ‘How was it to live in the camps?’, ‘Did you dream at night?’, ‘Why did Hitler hate the Jews?’, and ‘Can you forgive?’. With sensitivity and complete candour, Fried answers these questions and more in this deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.

Full Product Details

9781911617778

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Reviews

`Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.' * Kirkus *

`Now 94, Fried's largeness of spirit emanates from every considered response to even the most confronting questions asked of her. One senses that her replies are not only educative but therapeutic, especially for young people grappling with their own questions about the meaning of life. While most of her experiences of this period are inescapably dark, there were moments of light that assumed enormous significance.' -- Fiona Capp * The Saturday Age * `Candid and unflinching, deeply personal and sensitive, this is the perfect book for anyone, young or old, wanting to learn more about the Holocaust and why we must never forget - especially as the last surviving witnesses are lost to us.' -- Leanne Edimistone * Courier Mail * `Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.' * Kirkus * `Anyone who can remember that time, anyone who can remember someone who could remember, or anyone who feels the instinctive urge to be one with the humanity of memory, and the memory of humanity, cannot but be moved deeply and quite actively by Fried's book.' * Bookanista * `Hedi Fried is a remarkable woman and her writing offers important insights into truly terrible events and the slow, insidious way in which hatred can be fostered. Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is an easy to read account of things that are almost too horrible to comprehend. The essays represent an individual's reflections on matters that touch the whole of humanity and, as Fried hopes, the lessons she has to teach about the past should serve as a warning for the future.' FIVE STARS -- Erin Britton * New Books Magazine * `Reminds us all why we need to heed the lessons of the past.' * Big Issue (London) * `This slim but powerful volume comprises answers to the questions she is most frequently asked ... Fried answers with candour and thoughtfulness in a book that should be required reading for all young people.' -- Hannah Beckerman * The Observer * `It is the telling detail that gives her testimony its particular power ... This little book, with its reminder there are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some ... that have no answer , is a moving record of one woman's experience.' -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times *

`Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.' * Kirkus * `Anyone who can remember that time, anyone who can remember someone who could remember, or anyone who feels the instinctive urge to be one with the humanity of memory, and the memory of humanity, cannot but be moved deeply and quite actively by Fried's book.' * Bookanista * `Hedi Fried is a remarkable woman and her writing offers important insights into truly terrible events and the slow, insidious way in which hatred can be fostered. Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is an easy to read account of things that are almost too horrible to comprehend. The essays represent an individual's reflections on matters that touch the whole of humanity and, as Fried hopes, the lessons she has to teach about the past should serve as a warning for the future.' FIVE STARS -- Erin Britton * New Books Magazine * `Reminds us all why we need to heed the lessons of the past.' * Big Issue (London) * `This slim but powerful volume comprises answers to the questions she is most frequently asked ... Fried answers with candour and thoughtfulness in a book that should be required reading for all young people.' -- Hannah Beckerman * The Observer * `It is the telling detail that gives her testimony its particular power ... This little book, with its reminder there are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some ... that have no answer , is a moving record of one woman's experience.' -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times *

Author Information

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. She has been shortlisted for the 2020 Peirene Stevns Translation Prize and the 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize.

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