"This is how we survived two years in the Holocaust": Shared his grandmother's potato peel latke recipe - and moved many

A touching post circulating on social media managed to move us, and rightfully so. 

In the post, a chef named Ronen (and that is all we know about him) shared his grandmother Hella's latke recipe, which, miraculously, helped her survive the Holocaust. 

Here's what he writes:

"Holocaust Latkes 2023. Hello everyone, I wanted to share a personal story of mine: My grandmother, Grandma Hella, was a Polish Holocaust survivor who fled Poland after the Nazis invaded during World War II. As a kid, I always loved her 'latkes.' She always made the most delicious latkes, and it wasn't just me who said that—all my friends thought so as well, without exception.

"When I grew older, I began studying cooking more professionally, and I asked my grandmother for her latke recipe. I must say, I left with a story for a lifetime. She told me that when the Nazis invaded Poland, she had a two-year-old daughter and was newly pregnant with my mother. "I fled to Russia and reached as far as Kyrgyzstan, where your mother was born, and I left her along with her older sister in a convent. A one-year-old and a three-year-old under false identities, so that if the Nazis reached there, they wouldn't kill the children."

"I instructed them that when the war ended, they should send the girls via the Jewish Agency to Israel. Meanwhile, I returned to Poland and joined the partisans, where we fought the Nazis for two years. During those two years, we were hiding in mountains and forests, with nothing to eat. At night we would come under the cover of darkness and empty the town's garbage bins. Back then, what we usually found in the trash were potato peels. We would wash them well, chop them finely, add flour, salt, and pepper, and fry them. That's what we had to eat, and that's how we survived for two years."

Two years later, the Nazis ambushed them and killed almost all the partisans. "Out of 2000 people, only three survived—and I was one of them," concluded Grandma Hella, leaving her grandson Ronen in shock. "Later on, as I learned to be a chef, I discovered all the vitamins are in the peels, and that's what kept them alive. My grandmother called them Holocaust Latkes. My only upgrade is frying them in onion-flavored oil. You can also fry them plain, and they'll be very tasty."

Grandma Hella's Latke Recipe:

Wash the potatoes thoroughly with water and a scotch pad, then soak them in a bowl of cold water with half a cup of vinegar for five minutes. 

Grate the potato peels into a bowl. The potatoes themselves can be used for other purposes like making mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes. In this recipe, like Grandma Hella, we will only use the peels. 

Add 4 tablespoons of flour, half a teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of black pepper to the peels. 

Mix well and wait five minutes to let the potato peels release their liquids. 

Mix the whole concoction together until a uniform mixture is obtained. 

Heat oil in a pan where onions have been fried or use regular oil, and take a small amount of the mixture with a spoon each time. 

Flatten the mixture on the hot oil until brown, then flip to the other side. 

When the latke is ready, remove it to a plate lined with absorbent paper and serve hot with sugar or sour cream on the side. 

Enjoy your meal.