We know her as the opinion leader and holocaust survivor who lectured about her history – but she was also a mother and grandmother.
The granddaughter Sanna Fried has now created an exhibition with portraits of Hédi Fried to tell about her relationship with her grandmother.
– I can’t tell my grandmother’s story, but I can keep her memory alive, she says.
Hédi Fried came to Sweden in 1945 and she dedicated her life to telling about her experiences and working against racism. She was a World War II survivor, but she was also a single mother, a businesswoman, a grandmother, and a vagabond. Sanna Fried says that her grandmother often traveled a lot and that her work could sometimes come before the family.
– When I was younger, I had a hard time understanding it. But I feel that it is something that I have gained an enormously greater understanding of.
“The Great Gift”
During Hédi Fried’s last years, granddaughter and artist Sanna Fried decided to go deeper and get to know her. She decided to paint photos of her grandmother and started by going through her photo archive. The project resulted in an exhibition of portraits of Hédi Fried.
– What has been the great gift was gaining a new understanding of who my grandmother was. And also an understanding of why you might act the way you do when you have the baggage or trauma with you that my grandmother has had.
Responsibility for history
Hédi Fried passed away in November 2022 and can no longer spread her own story. Sanna Fried says that there is a discussion around the question of who bears the responsibility of passing on someone’s story, in case it falls on the relatives or society at large.
– I personally feel that I cannot tell about my grandmother’s story. I can’t take her word for it, I don’t have that knowledge, she says and continues:
– But what I can do is keep her memory alive by paying attention to her and talking about my relationship with my grandmother. That is one of the aims of the exhibition, to keep her memory alive and thus keep an important part of history alive.