Hédi Fried was born in 1924 in Sighet, a part of Romania that became Hungarian in 1940. In 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz, and she was freed from Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. In July 1945 the Swedish Red Cross transported her to Sweden, where she went on to get married, study psychology in Stockholm, and raise a family (three children, seven grandchildren). For her educational work with regard to the Holocaust, she was awarded the Eldh-Ekblad Peace Prize in 1997, the Swedish Government Illis Quorum in 1998, Årets Europa in 1999, Natur och Kultur Culture Prize in 2000, and the Jewish Congregation medal in 2001. She has also received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University. She has published four books of memoirs: Skärvor av ett liv (Fragments of a life), Livet tillbaka (Return to life), Ett tredje liv (A third life), and Livets pendel (Life’s pendulum).