Henry Friedman 8803 SE 78th St
Mercer Island, WA 98040
(206) 232-7590
As founder and current chairman of the Washington State Holocaust Education Center, Henry Friedman is a major contributor to the Center's remarkable success. Friedman's efforts result not only from his awareness of the increasing level of violence throughout the world, but also from his own personal experience as a Holocaust survivor. As a member of the Special Advisory Council of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, he helped open the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. on April 22, 1993. He has been a guest at both the White House and the Vatican. As a guest of the German Government, Friedman went to several German cities, touring schools to observe how the Holocaust was being taught, and visiting concentration map sites. He is the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Hadassah Humanitarian Award (1998), the Hand in Hand Award (1997), and the Spirit of Liberty Award (1993). His memoir, I'm No Hero: Journeys of a Holocaust Survivor, was published in 1999. This is his second term as an Inquiring Mind speaker.
I'm No Hero: Journeys of a Holocaust Survivor Based on his 1999 memoir, Henry Friedman recounts his adolescence and coming of age under the unspeakable horror of Nazism. When the Nazis overran their home near the Polish-Ukrainian border, the Friedman family was saved Ukrainian Christians who had worked for them at their family farm in the nearby village of Suchowola. When the Russians liberated the family after 18 months in hiding, Henry, just short of 16, made his way with his family to a displaced persons camp in Austria. In the camp, he discovered sex, money, and the intricacies of the Black market. Like many other Holocaust survivors, he found it difficult to examine the past. However, his sense of obligation to bear witness eventually overcame his painful memories and his feelings of survivor-guilt. In his I'm No Hero presentation, Mr. Friedman confronts with unblinking honesty the pain, shame, and bizarre comedy that were his passage to adulthood.
Audience: middle school through adult Requirements: VCR and monitor
