Henry Friedman and his family survived the Holocaust hiding in a barn for 18 months. The Polish man never had the opportunity to graduate high school.
A Seattle-area school district will award Friedman, who dedicates his time in the district, with an honorary high school diploma, according to KING 5 News. The 86-year-old man will receive his certificate from the Kent School District on Oct. 8.
"I always felt something missing in my life, especially when I went to my children's graduations then graduating from college," Friedman told KING 5 News. "I don't have the words in my vocabulary to describe what it really feels like."
Friedman, who lives on Mercer Island just east of Seattle, has volunteered his time to the school district for more than 20 years. He shares his first-hand experience of life in Nazi-occupied Europe and the human toll of war.
"I come from a city that had a Jewish population of 10,000," he said. "There were less than 100 of us that survived."
Two Ukranian families in Suchowola, a small village in Poland, risked their lives to hide Friedman and his family during the war. The Friedmans suffered through freezing cold temperatures and almost starved to death, until Russian troops liberated the village in March 1994, according to Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center.
Chris Loftis, Chief of Communications for the Kent School District, will present the diploma to Friedman. Loftis called the school's volunteer "one of the best instructors" and stressed the students' education goes beyond the regular school subjects.
"Education is about learning about the community of humanity. Henry Friedman is one of the best instructors we could possibly have in that community," Loftis told King 5 News.
Friedman also speaks with the students about the importance of having an education.
"We had properties in Europe. Most of it was lost. We had money. Most of that was lost. But I was able to carry through borders whatever teachers had put through my head," he said. "Nobody can take that away from you.
Friedman wrote a book about his life entitled I'm No Hero: Journeys of a Holocaust Survivor. He helped establish the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and the founding of the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center.
The Holocaust claimed approximately 6 million Jewish lives. The Nazis killed 11 million people total including Gypsies, Poles, communists, homosexuals, Soviet POWs and the mentally and physically disabled.
