The unforgettable true story of a girl born in the Kovno Ghetto, and the dangerous risk her parents faced in defying the barbarous Nazi law prohibiting childbirth.
Elida Friedman was not supposed to have been born. In the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, Nazi law forbade Jewish women from giving birth. Yet despite the fear of death, Dr. Jonah Friedman and his wife Tzila, choose to bring a daughter into the world, a little girl they name Elida—meaning non-birth in Hebrew.
To increase their child's chance of survival, the Friedmans smuggle the baby out of the ghetto and into the arms of a non-Jewish farm family when Elida is only three months old. It is the beginning of a life marked by constant upheaval. When the Nazis raze the entire Kovno Ghetto, Jonah and Tzila are among those killed. Their only child is left orphaned and alone, dependent on the kindness of strangers.
Despite her circumstances, Elida grows up, changing families, countries, continents, and even names, countless times. Surviving the war and the Holocaust that stole her parents, the young woman never gives up hope. In her lifelong pursuit to find love and belonging, she works to rebuild her identity and triumph over her terrible circumstances.
A moving, powerful chronicle of overcoming impossible odds, The Forbidden Daughter is the true story of one unforgettable woman and her will to survive.
How does a child stripped of her past build a future, and what does it take to reclaim an identity stolen by history?
- A Mother’s Choice: In the Kovno Ghetto, where Nazi law forbade Jewish births, Dr. Jonah and Tzila Friedman make the ultimate defiant choice—to bring their daughter Elida into a world determined to erase her.
- Smuggled to Safety: At just three months old, Elida is secretly passed out of the ghetto and placed with a non-Jewish family, a desperate gamble that orphans her but ultimately saves her life.
- A Life in Transit: From Lithuania to Israel to America, Elida’s life becomes a constant search for home as she changes families, continents, and even her own name in the pursuit of belonging.
- Against All Odds: This powerful WWII true story chronicles one woman’s lifelong quest not only to survive the Holocaust but to build a future from the ashes of a past that was stolen from her.