Eric A. Pires @eapsoulout - Twitter Profile

about 1 month ago

In Auschwitz, my mother taught me three rules. Not stories. Not prayers. Rules. The kind that kept you alive. Rule one: Never make eye contact with a guard. Rule two: Never show that you are sick. Rule three: Never, ever, lose your bowl. I was five years old. I memorized them the way other children memorize nursery rhymes. The bowl was a small tin thing. Dented. Scratched. It held whatever thin soup they gave us once a day. If you lost your bowl, you had no bowl. If you had no bowl, you had no ration. If you had no ration, you understand. I guarded that bowl with everything I had. I slept with it. I held it against my chest during roll call. I knew where it was every second of every day. Then one morning, I fell into the latrine. There is no delicate way to say this. The latrines in Auschwitz were wooden boards with holes cut into them over a pit. The holes were large. I was very small. I was in a hurry. I slipped. I went in up to my neck. The smell. The cold. The rats. I do not need to describe it. Your mind already knows. My mother tried to pull me out. She could not. I was slippery and she had no strength. None of us had strength. We had not eaten properly in months. She called out. Other women came. Together they pulled me free. Someone found a hose. They sprayed me down in the cold air while I stood there shaking. I did not cry. Rule number one in Auschwitz was the same rule everywhere, do not attract attention. But I got sick. Very sick. The kind of sick that comes from rats and filth and cold water and a body that has nothing left to fight with. And I remembered Rule Two, never show that you are sick. I hid it from everyone. From the guards. From the other children. Even from my mother, because I knew if she knew, she would do something. And doing something in Auschwitz got you killed. But someone saw. I do not know who. I do not know why they helped me instead of reporting me. I never knew. They took me to a room, a makeshift hospital. I lay in a bed, a real bed, not a wooden bunk, for the first time since we had arrived. I do not remember much of what happened next. The fever blurred everything. Days passed like smoke. When I came out, I still had my bowl. I had held it even in the latrine. Even in the fever. Even in the dark when I did not know where I was or what day it was. My mother looked at me when I came back. She looked at the bowl. She did not say anything. She just nodded, the way she nodded when something had gone the way it needed to go. People ask me what survival looks like. I tell them, sometimes it looks like a five year old girl climbing out of a latrine in a death camp, covered in filth, shaking with cold, still holding her tin bowl. Because she knew that the bowl was the difference between eating and not eating. Between living and not. Because her mother had told her. And she had listened. I am Tova Friedman. I fell into a latrine in Auschwitz at five years old. I came out still holding my bowl. Tova. #NeverForget #Survival #DaughterOfAuschwitz #ShesStillHere #TheirNamesLiveOn

ChaiLife613's tweet photo. In Auschwitz, my mother taught me three rules.

Not stories. Not prayers. Rules. The kind that kept you alive.

Rule one: Never make eye contact with a guard.
Rule two: Never show that you are sick.
Rule three: Never, ever, lose your bowl.

I was five years old. I memorized them the way other children memorize nursery rhymes.

The bowl was a small tin thing. Dented. Scratched. It held whatever thin soup they gave us once a day. If you lost your bowl, you had no bowl. If you had no bowl, you had no ration. If you had no ration, you understand.

I guarded that bowl with everything I had. I slept with it. I held it against my chest during roll call. I knew where it was every second of every day.

Then one morning, I fell into the latrine.

There is no delicate way to say this. The latrines in Auschwitz were wooden boards with holes cut into them over a pit. The holes were large. I was very small. I was in a hurry. I slipped.

I went in up to my neck.

The smell. The cold. The rats. I do not need to describe it. Your mind already knows.

My mother tried to pull me out. She could not. I was slippery and she had no strength. None of us had strength. We had not eaten properly in months. She called out. Other women came. Together they pulled me free. Someone found a hose. They sprayed me down in the cold air while I stood there shaking.

I did not cry. Rule number one in Auschwitz was the same rule everywhere, do not attract attention.

But I got sick. Very sick. The kind of sick that comes from rats and filth and cold water and a body that has nothing left to fight with.

And I remembered Rule Two, never show that you are sick.

I hid it from everyone. From the guards. From the other children. Even from my mother, because I knew if she knew, she would do something. And doing something in Auschwitz got you killed.

But someone saw. I do not know who. I do not know why they helped me instead of reporting me. I never knew.

They took me to a room, a makeshift hospital. I lay in a bed, a real bed, not a wooden bunk, for the first time since we had arrived.

I do not remember much of what happened next. The fever blurred everything. Days passed like smoke.

When I came out, I still had my bowl.

I had held it even in the latrine. Even in the fever. Even in the dark when I did not know where I was or what day it was.

My mother looked at me when I came back. She looked at the bowl. She did not say anything. She just nodded, the way she nodded when something had gone the way it needed to go.

People ask me what survival looks like.

I tell them, sometimes it looks like a five year old girl climbing out of a latrine in a death camp, covered in filth, shaking with cold, still holding her tin bowl.

Because she knew that the bowl was the difference between eating and not eating. Between living and not.

Because her mother had told her. And she had listened.

I am Tova Friedman. I fell into a latrine in Auschwitz at five years old.

I came out still holding my bowl.

Tova.

#NeverForget #Survival #DaughterOfAuschwitz #ShesStillHere #TheirNamesLiveOn

2K

17K

5K

1K

335K

eapsoulout retweeted

Oli London

@OliLondonTV

3 months ago

John Cleese calls out BLM activists and liberals for staying silent on Christian massacres in Nigeria. “It looks rather as though Black Lives Don’t Matter.” The comedian has also called out the liberal media for their silence saying: “Also, writing about it would damage the image of the murderers who killed these poor people.”

301

53K

12K

2K

929K

Eric A. Pires @eapsoulout

4 months ago

A practical guide containing several examples to help you be on the lookout for antisemitism Don’t confuse criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Compiled by Jewish Leaders United Against Antisemitism. https://t.co/0RQvOjwZ3A

0

13

eapsoulout retweeted

Enezator

@Enezator

4 months ago

This LEGO build cost him 200K and two marriages, but it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. 😳

441

15K

2K

4K

2M

Who to follow

Clark Bunch

@clarkjbunch

Pastor (Unity Baptist), husband, father, blogger, coffee enthusiast.

Fabio Secomandi

@cafecombiblia

#OrandoPeloBrasil #PrayForSyria #PrayForVenezuela #PrayForUkraine

eapsoulout retweeted

6 months ago

Did you know MLK Jr. was a proud Zionist? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. openly supported Israel and the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. MLK understood something many pretend not to today: Zionism is a civil rights movement. 👀 Make this go viral. Repost if you stand with MLK and Israel.

134

2K

639

138

23K

eapsoulout retweeted

Sana Ebrahimi Ledene

@__Injaneb96

6 months ago

This is Tehran. Let that sink in. You are watching a revolution unfold live while the world’s media stays dead silent. Legacy media has become nothing more than a propaganda machine, because what news could possibly be bigger than this? @FoxNews @CNN https://t.co/1X5PlzQAhw

6K

225K

59K

10K

12M

eapsoulout retweeted

New York Yankees

@Yankees

6 months ago

Happy Holidays from the New York Yankees!❄🎁

462

3K

452

50

192K

eapsoulout retweeted

Star Wars Holocron

@sw_holocron

6 months ago

ANDOR Season 2 is named the Best Television Series of 2025 by @totalfilm

28

6K

323

98

117K

eapsoulout retweeted

Vivid.🇮🇱

@VividProwess

7 months ago

52,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria by Islamists. Not a word from Candace Owens. Not a word from Tucker Carlson. Not a word from the international media. Not a word from the United Nations. This is a real genocide. Their silence is deafening.

VividProwess's tweet photo. 52,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria by Islamists.

Not a word from Candace Owens.
Not a word from Tucker Carlson.
Not a word from the international media.
Not a word from the United Nations.

This is a real genocide.

Their silence is deafening. https://t.co/UXX81QC3mU

1K

36K

13K

857

482K

eapsoulout retweeted

New York Yankees

@Yankees

7 months ago

Wishing a Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!

127

3K

232

29

112K

eapsoulout retweeted

Manchester United

@ManUtd

7 months ago

The festival of Chanukah would usually be a moment of celebration and light for our Jewish fans and their communities around the world. After today’s appalling terrorist attack in Sydney, it has become a far more sombre occasion. Our thoughts are with those immediately affected in Sydney. We stand with them, as we do with the Jewish community in Manchester, following the events at Heaton Park Synagogue earlier this year, and those around the world who are marking Chanukah.