BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Roman Frayman is a living miracle.
"Anyone who is a survivor is a miracle, that they survived," he said.
There are only about 400,000 survivors of the Holocaust still alive today. An estimated 100,000 survivors are in the U.S., each with important lessons to share. On Sunday, Roman Frayman, 81, of Beachwood, told his Holocaust survival story, and it's one you can now pick up on store shelves. Two local teens turned his story of childhood escape from the Nazi regime, into a children's book.
Frayman was born into a Jewish family in Poland and survived the brutalities of the Holocaust that would see the extermination of 6 million Jews. He lived in a work camp with his parents, constantly ducking from the Nazis. He was hidden at the camp by his parents. He was also hidden under the care of a neighbor, while his mother hid in a coal bin in a basement. If the Nazis had discovered him, he would have been killed. Frayman never really had a childhood as most know one.
"We were in a bunker," he told sixth grade students at the Fairmount Temple in Beachwood on Sunday. "There were about 11 or 12 people with us."
He still remembers the horrors he witnesses from the tender age of four.
"Sometimes the mothers would have to kill their babies, so that they wouldn't make a sound. The tragedy is, the Nazis would find everybody, and everybody would be killed," he explained.
Though his childhood was grim, he tells his story so today's youth can understand his and other survivors' wartime experiences and the dangers of intolerance. It's also part of a national literacy project called, "A Book by Me." It encourages young kids to write a book on a Holocaust survivor's story, to preserve their memory and teach the importance of compassion and kindness.
Two local teens are participating in the project. Fairmount Temple ninth-grader Miriam Duhamel wrote, and Temple Tifereth Israel ninth-grader Anna Wolf illustrated a children's book on Frayman's life, titled Three Miracles -- The Life of Roman Frayman.
"Hearing another real story helped it feel more real and helped me understand it more," says Wolf.
For Frayman, a man who was denied a real childhood, his story and the book finally give that childhood purpose: Helping to shape other childhoods, and future generations.
"There are good people in each religion," he says. "Just stand up for your rights."
To buy the book on Amazon, click here.