Biography
Manya Friedman (born Manya Moszkowicz) is the daughter of Gedaliah and Malka (nee Beker) Moszkowicz. She was born on December 30, 1925 in Chmielnik, Poland where her father owned a furniture shop. Manya had two younger brothers, David and Mordechai (Mottle), and was surrounded by many close relatives and friends. She attended both public and Hebrew schools. In 1938 Manya's family moved to Sosnowiec, a larger city located near the German border. There she experienced antisemitism for the first time. Signs appeared urging Polish citizens to boycott Jewish businesses. German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and three days later occupied Sosnowiec. That same day, a group of local Jews, including Manya's father, were rounded up and marched to a factory, where their heads and beards were shaved. They were held overnight without food or water and then selected for forced labor. Manya's father was assigned to build army latrines. A month later, her mother was arrested for violating the curfew. In 1941 Manya was forced to work for a German company that produced military uniforms. The following year, the Nazis began deporting Jews from Sosnowiec to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. At first Manya and her family were saved from deportation because of their work permits. Eventually though her family was deported to Auschwitz; she never saw them again. In March 1943, Manya was forcibly taken to the Gogolin transit camp, and from there to the Gleiwitz forced labor camp. In January 1945, as the Soviet army approached, the Germans evacuated Gleiwitz. Manya and the other prisoners were transported for ten days in open freight cars in the bitter cold to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. During the journey, she shielded a sick friend from being crushed in the overcrowded car. Her own arms were bruised and swollen. Later Manya was taken to the Rechlin camp, where she was rescued by the Swedish Red Cross in April 1945 and brought first to Denmark and then Sweden as part of the Folke Bernadotte mission. In 1950 she emigrated from Sweden to the United States.
