By Dan Aznoff, Jewish Sound Correspondent
It’s never too late to finish high school. Henry Friedman had barely become a teenager when he was forced to hide in the confines of a cramped farmhouse attic. To escape the Nazi reign of terror, the young Friedman spent 18 silent months near the border between the Ukraine and Poland in a space he remembers as no larger than a queen-sized bed with his parents and a former teacher. The foursome survived on scraps of food smuggled to them by the daughter of the farmer who owned the barn.
Seventy years later, he can still recall witnessing friends and neighbors being shipped off to perform forced labor in concentration camps. He can recall the heart-wrenching details of smuggling himself out of the barn one night to bury the body of his newborn sister. That tragedy, however, was followed by a storybook life of prosperity in America, and Friedman has shared that story in a self-published book titled “I’m No Hero,” as well as with students across Washington State for more than 20 years.
When Kent School District officials learned that their frequent guest had always regretted not earning his high school diploma, the school board voted to present him with an honorary degree. Pat Gallagher, Friedman’s long-time friend and a teacher and administrator in the Kent school system, coordinated the ceremony.
In addition to receiving his diploma on Oct. 8, the octogenarian served as commencement speaker for the fall graduation ceremonies held at the district offices.
“My dream of becoming a lawyer disappeared overnight in 1941 when the Germans put barbed wire to surround the town of Brode to create a Jewish ghetto,” Friedman told the four other students in his graduating class and the small crowd that gathered at the school district office. “If somebody had told me that someday I would be in America, I would have told that person, ‘Just give me a full stomach before I am killed.’”
Friedman was hospitalized for malnutrition and dehydration after Russian soldiers liberated him from the barn. The teenager was one of fewer than 100 Jews from a population of 10,000 in Brode to survive the war.
He eventually made his way across the Atlantic to Boston and boarded a train in 1949 for his new home in Seattle. Less than two years later, he was drafted and fought as an American soldier in Korea. But Friedman has always regretted not completing his formal education.
“When I was going through the graduation of my children from high school to college and my grandchildren, I always felt a little emptiness,” he said.
Following the intimate ceremony, Friedman explained how determination and his religion helped him survive his captivity above the barn. He said he was motivated by the strength of Jews throughout history who had been persecuted purely because of their faith.
Friedman’s high school graduation comes three years after he was called to the Torah to become a Bar Mitzvah at the age of 83. In his life as an American, he played an instrumental part in the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and is one of the founders of the Washington Holocaust Education Resource Center.
The center’s new building and museum, the Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity, is set to open early next year in downtown Seattle. In addition to being his friend, Gallagher serves on the Holocaust Center board with Friedman. Gallagher said Friedman has been an inspiration since they first met 20 years ago.
“It’s impossible for me not to cry regardless of how many times I’ve heard his story,” Gallagher said. “Henry has been generous with his time for numerous causes, but I’ve seen first-hand the impact his words have on the middle school and high school students he visits each year.”
The story of his confinement was especially poignant to 19-year-old Mandi McGowin, who heard Friedman speak to her class last year at Kent Mountain View Academy.
“I suffer from Tourette’s syndrome and could not imagine being forced to lay completely still for day after day,” said McGowin, who attended the graduation with her family. “I would have been discovered and killed for sure. Mr. Friedman is a precious gift who has come into my life. I am grateful and inspired by him every day.”