Reny Friedman
“I hope I have helped these young people and through them, future generations, to better understand the horrors of this time, and reassure them that the will to live is stronger than any effort to destroy life. My wish for all the young people is that the future should be as kind to them as it was to me. I am forever grateful to the March of the Living for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful and important experience.”
Reny Friedman is a child survivor from the Netherlands. She and her twin brother were born on April 4, 1937. With the help of the underground her family went into hiding in the countryside, of the Ardennes region, as well as in Brussels. In both cases they were discovered and forced to run. Her mother was deported to Auschwitz and survived. Her father placed Reny in a convent and her brother in a monastery. She passed the remainder of the war there and began to enjoy the rituals and trappings of the Catholic faith. When her father came to get her at the end of the war, he allowed her time to return to her Jewish roots. Reny made her way to Canada in 1955, where she met and married Henry Friedman, also a Holocaust Survivor. They are blessed with three children and two grandchildren.
