Philip Friedman

He was born in the Galician town of Lemberg and studied History and Jewish Studies in Vienna. In 1925, he completed his doctorate on the struggle for equality of Galician Jews. Following the completion of his degree, Friedman published his academic writings and worked as a teacher in Łódź and Warsaw. At the beginning of war, he returned to his birthplace, where he spent the war years in hiding.

Friedman was the only member of his family to survive. After the liberation, Friedman became chairman of the Central Jewish Historical Commission in Łódź. In 1945, he published To jest Oświęcim (This Is Auschwitz), the world’s first collection of reports and documents on the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. Other monographs followed. Friedman also taught at university and supported police investigations against perpetrators. After his deposition at the Nuremberg trials he did not return to communist Poland. Instead, he focused his time on teaching and educating Jewish refugees in displaced person camps in Germany. In 1948, he emigrated to the USA with his second wife Ada Eber. He taught Holocaust Studies at Columbia University. Until his death, he published several more books in different languages