"I didn’t even know we were Jewish until after World War Two. I—I had no idea. My father lost his brother, who couldn’t come with us because he was not an American citizen or a relative of one. He was killed in Auschwitz, and then my Aunt…

"She was captured in Cavalaire and taken to Marseilles or Toulon—which are the two cities that are right on the coast there, In 1944, June, she was taken to Drancy, which is a suburb of Paris on the North, basically the North side of Paris. …

"They were notified by the same agency that helped them resettle. When word came back to the Americans in Berlin, a communication was sent out to my grandfather, and my father flew up to New York to meet his mother. I know that while they…

"And eventually [my grandmother] was released from imprisonment but moved to work camps—several camps over time along the Black Sea in, I believe, Turkmenistan, eventually ending up in Spassk . And that was the last camp that I can recall that she…

"I think in the western—in the French, British, and American sides you could pass pretty easily, but it was not easy to pass between the Soviet-controlled side and the western-allotted side. There were checkpoints, and you know, I think only…

"There was a road leading to the liberation. The last camp that we were in was finally bombed by the P-51 Mustangs on the 16th... of April. On the 23rd of April, that camp was closed. And we were put on what was later known as the Ganacker…

Editor's Note: At Natzweiler, Friedman encountered French prisoners for the first time. As a weekly "treat," the inmates were issued jellied snails on Sundays. Friedman, and some other inmates not familiar with this food item, would…

"The second thing checked out: what kind of food do they give you. When and how much. And of course, you’re sleeping accommodations, etc. And what labor, what kind of work, you know, was least exposed to physical, you know, punishment, etc. So…

Editor's Note: After Friedman left Horgau, he went to Leonberg where he worked in another airplane factory. There, he made cigarette boxes from aluminum scraps for a time, at the request of his German supervisor, in exchange for extra rations.…

"It was just sheer luck. But in order to get to the point of sheer luck and in order to survive to that particular point, you needed besides physical support, you needed what I would call spiritual and emotional and intellectual support. And…