KarunaNews Story

Visitors routinely pose tough questions on Tova Friedman’s TikTok account, in which the 84-year-old depicts the brutal reality of Auschwitz, a World War II Nazi extermination camp. Since she and her 17-year-old grandson, Aron Goodman, started the page in September 2021, about 500,000 individuals have subscribed. The project combats online Holocaust misinformation by sharing Friedman’s own experience. While TikTok videos cannot replace traditional school lessons, Aron believes the channel will motivate young people to learn more on their own. Friedman, who works as a therapist, says the goal is to make people realize the dangers of uncontrolled hatred. “It’s okay to feel dislike. … But it’s a different thing to act on it.” Aron advises her how to make the most of the films’ limited length and tweaks posts afterward, and also protects Friedman from antisemitic comments. He is leaving New Jersey this September to attend college in St. Louis, but plans to expand the account to include interviews with other Holocaust survivors and video chats with his grandma via FaceTime.