Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
News

Holocaust survivor warns against history repeating itself

Hédi Fried says we must 'never got used to injustice'

Holocaust survivor Hédi Fried believes it’s important to share her harrowing tale so that the current generation can ensure such a thing never happens again.

Fried was 19 when she arrived at Auschwitz from Hungary. Shortly afterwards she said goodbye to her parents for the last time.

Now 94, she channels her extraordinary philosophy into Holocaust awareness by visiting schools in her adopted home of Sweden. 

She said: “One of the lessons from the Holocaust is this: never get used to injustice. An injustice is like a grain of sand in your hand; on its own, its weight may seem insignificant, but injustices have a tendency to multiply, they soon become so heavy that you can no longer bear them.

 “There are still a few eyewitnesses who can speak about their own experiences. Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left, and in order to try to prevent these horrors from happening again, our stories must be passed on.

“We already have a nominated day of remembrance, January 27. I hope that this becomes a long-lived tradition, through which new generations can pass on the story and tell it in a way that reaches their listeners’ hearts.”

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Read more from Fried in this week’s copy of The Big Issue, on sale now.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Do you know how Big Issue 'really' works?

Watch this simple explanation.

Recommended for you

View all
'I had to be honest with myself after leaving prison. I wanted a different life'
Ali Hashi
Prisons

'I had to be honest with myself after leaving prison. I wanted a different life'

'I was homeless and now I'm a tour guide. It's walking and talking - which I'm actually good at!'
Mandy shares historical facts in the gardens of Old Gala House, a 16th-century mansion that’s now a museum
Travel

'I was homeless and now I'm a tour guide. It's walking and talking - which I'm actually good at!'

If Andy Burnham wants to end rough sleeping he must close the revolving door in prisons
a prisoner behind prison bars
Pavan Dhaliwal

If Andy Burnham wants to end rough sleeping he must close the revolving door in prisons

'I used to be a prison governor. Now I support prison leavers become self-employed'
Andy Gullick
Prisons

'I used to be a prison governor. Now I support prison leavers become self-employed'