Three Holocaust survivors were reunited more than 70 years later. Tova Friedman, Sarah Ludwig and Michael Bornstein were photographed by a Soviet soldier upon their liberation in January 1945. The three children, all born in Poland, did not know each other during the Holocaust and later immigrated to the United States, settling in different towns in New Jersey.
That changed in 2015, when Tova Friedman attended a Jewish day school fundraiser and saw an image of her younger self at the moment of liberation. She soon learned that the other girl in the photo was Sarah Ludwig. Amazingly, the two women had already met without realizing their connection; Ludwig was a teacher at that very school and had previously taught two of Friedman’s grandchildren.
In 2017, Michael Bornstein was identified as the third child in the photo, and his daughter organized a reunion for the three survivors. In this photograph, they point to the iconic image of their younger selves.
