Morristown Teen Recounts Grandmother's Holocaust Survival Story

MORRISTOWN, NJ — A junior at Morristown High School was awarded the first-ever Outstanding Student Holocaust Education Award by the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community and Holocaust Memorial and Education Center in Somerset.

Aron Goodman was sitting in his history class when he noticed that the Holocaust had been covered only briefly, with little discussion and even less interest from his classmates.

Disappointed by his peers' lack of knowledge, Aron decided to create and post a documentary about his grandmother, Tova Friedman, an Auschwitz survivor, and her wartime experiences as part of his humanities project.

"We cannot allow hate to thrive. And it starts with each individual taking action, from stopping a bully in school to shutting down anti-Semitic or racist jokes, to supporting Ukraine. Social media is now one of the most powerful weapons my generation has, that’s why I chose to tell my grandmother's story on TikTok,” Goodman said.

Following the initial success of his TikTok videos, Goodman enlisted the assistance of his grandmother and asked her to film a few videos, answering some of the viewers' questions about her experiences during the war.

The videos covered everything from how Friedman and her family ended up in Auschwitz and how she survived to what her life was like after she was liberated.

Goodman believed that, while they were unlikely to garner much attention, they were important pieces of information to document. Surprisingly, her TikTok videos went viral, with thousands of people commenting, discussing, and attending their live streams.

“I started this campaign because I want to tell my peers, not to be bystanders. That the Holocaust is not some ancient history that is not relevant to them, but that we must learn from it, so it doesn’t happen again," Goodman said.

Goodman and his grandmother have made over 100 videos, garnered over 45 million views, and have over 452,000 followers.

In one of their most popular videos, which has over 8 million views, Friedman explains the meaning of the tattooed number on her wrist. "I had no name, my name was 27,633, I was tattooed by a young woman whose hands trembled because she wasn't happy having to tattoo children," Friedman said.

Goodman currently works with educators from Albania to Australia to assist them with their Holocaust curriculum, and he hopes to broaden his scope in order to create a memorial and Holocaust educational programs at his school.

“One day I will no longer be here, and people will say the Holocaust never happened or will
distort the truth. I am here as a witness to tell my story and the story of the 6 million that were killed, including 1.5 million children. I am so happy knowing that Aron will continue my story so that those that were murdered will not be forgotten. We never expected to get so much attention. I’m glad people care," Friedman said.