Tova Feldman

A survivor of harrowing wartime experiences, embodies resilience and hope. From her miraculous escapes to her journey to Israel, Tova's story is a testament to courage and determination.

One of my best friends. I met Tova through Jodi Anderson. When I found out she taught Hebrew, I signed up. That was nine years ago, and I could write a book about our sweet relationship. Tova is loved by so many. She is often the honored guest at any event. She is a very young Survivor. Her story, her family story, is a Miracle Story. She is from Slovakia. Her dad was taken away first to a labor camp. Her mom had false papers that identified her as Hungarian. When they finally did come for her mom and the children, the first miracle was they took them to Novaky Work Camp, the very camp where her dad was a carpenter. When you read about the camp, you realize it was because of the timing of this camp that her family survived. However, three times they were on deportation lists and twice actually loaded on a train. Novaky was a building camp; they needed her dad's carpentry ability, so they were removed. In the late summer of 1944, the Partisans threw open the gates and said, "run for your lives!". Another miracle was the family stayed together as they began to run, but where to run? with alone much less five little children. They stayed with a Christian family for a week or so, but they were so many of them, and food was in such shortage they had to leave. It was also a death sentence to that family for helping Jews if they were found out. Tova feels nothing but kindness to that family for opening their home for the days they did. Taking them away from the Camp was another miracle as so many others were rounded up. They were walking down a road when a horse and wagon came along. The father asked, not for himself or his wife, if the children could ride on the wagon as they were so tired. The man agreed. Somewhere down the road, the father felt it was time to move into the forest. As they got to the edge of the forest, a plane came over bombing and obliterating the man, horse, and wagon. They were safe but by a hair's breadth. Another Miracle! They eventually found a concrete bunker deep in the forest. Her remembrance is about twenty-two, or twenty-three Jewish people were trying to hide. That is where they spent the Slovakian Winter. I asked what they ate, and she says, "potato peels, but Ann, that is where the nutrition is". Another Miracle. She said she didn't like what she had to eat but never felt hunger pants. I asked how did they get even potato peels. She said the men, one at a time each day, would go and beg for food. Another remembrance was a mom and a dad with a little boy her age and an infant. You can imagine the snowy forest and a baby's cry. Tova says she remembers some of the adults grumbling over the infant crying. How many miracles there were probably couldn't even be counted. Somehow they spent the entire winter there without being found out. My question still remains, how could you keep little children quiet? She doesn't know, except it was something she just knew she had to do, not make a sound. Can you imagine four years old, and her sister was three—certainly a Miracle. Three weeks before the war ended, one man was captured and tortured. He told the Nazis their location. Even that man, she holds no ill will. She said, "what could he do when he was tortured"? The Nazis came in trucks and immediately started shooting. They killed the mother and the infant sibling of her little friend. Then another Miracle for her family, an officer stopped the killing. Those left alive were loaded onto trucks and taken to town, where they were locked in a school. Three weeks later, they unlocked the door and said, "the war is over; you can go home". Tova was now five years old. Her mom and dad never told their story to Tova, her brother, or her sisters. She said sometimes the children would hear them talking to their friends who had also been in the camps. Tova was the second to youngest of the family. Her older sisters and brother were able to add more information. At five years of age, she remembers walking into their hometown. They were not treated well. The only question was, "how did you survive"? Their home was still there but stripped of all belongings, and nothing was ever returned. His carpentry shop no longer had any tools. Eventually, they immigrated to Israel in 1949. Tova is a wealth of information about the earliest days of the State of Israel. They lived in immigrant housing crowded in with other families sharing a communal kitchen. One of her remembrances to me is the dances they would have that would bring everyone out to welcome newresidents. Each time people would go with the hope of finding a long-lost relative or news of a family member that they didn't know was alive or dead. As I look at the 1945 Life Magazines and pictures from VE Day ...the worldwide celebrations...the laughter, the kisses, the champagne...and think how bittersweet that day must have been to those Jewish People. One last thing, Tova will not walk across the floor without her shoes. If you know anything about the Shoah, you know that having shoes meant the difference between life and death. The children were never allowed ...ever allowed to remove their shoes. Tova is a great speaker. She still teaches Hebrew! She lives in the Arlington of the greater Dallas Fort Worth Area. There is so much more to her story than I have written. Please contact me, and I will put you in contact with Tova. You will love her!