The Holocaust
Holocaust Latkes: The Incredible Survival Story Behind Grandma Hella’s Potato Peel Recipe
Chef Ronen reveals his grandmother Hella’s wartime recipe that kept her alive in the Holocaust and became a family legacy of resilience and hope
A touching post that went viral on social media has moved thousands of people — and for good reason.
In the post, a chef named Ronen shared the latke recipe of his grandmother, Hella, a Holocaust survivor who escaped death — thanks, in part, to these very latkes.
He wrote the following: “The Holocaust Latkes, 2023”
“Hello everyone, I want to share a personal story. My grandmother, Grandma Hella, was a Polish woman and a Holocaust survivor. She fled Poland after the Nazis invaded during World War II.
As a child, I always loved her latkes. Hers were the best I’d ever tasted — not just according to me, but to all my friends too. Everyone who tried them said the same thing.”
A Story Hidden Inside a Recipe
“When I grew older and started studying cooking professionally,” Ronen continues, “I asked my grandmother for her latke recipe. What I got instead was a story that changed my life.”
“She told me that when the Nazis invaded Poland, she already had a two-year-old daughter, and she was pregnant with my mother.
‘I fled to Russia,’ she told me, ‘and made it all the way to Kyrgyzstan, where your mother was born. I left both girls — the newborn and the toddler, in a convent under false Christian identities, so that if, God forbid, the Nazis reached there, they wouldn’t be killed.’
‘I told the nuns that once the war ended, they should send my daughters to the Land of Israel through the Jewish Agency. Meanwhile, I returned to Poland and joined the partisans. We fought the Nazis for two years, hiding in forests and mountains.
We had nothing to eat. At night, we would sneak into nearby villages and empty garbage bins. The only thing we usually found were potato peels. We washed them well, chopped them finely, added flour, salt, and pepper, and fried them. That was all we had to eat — and that’s how we survived for two years.’”
“Out of 2,000 Fighters — Only Three Survived”
“After two years,” Grandma Hella told him, “the Nazis ambushed us and killed almost everyone. Out of 2,000 partisans, only three survived — and I was one of them.”
Ronen says he was speechless. “Years later, when I trained as a chef, I discovered that most of the vitamins are actually in the potato peels, and that’s what kept them alive. My grandmother called them ‘Holocaust Latkes.’
The only change I made,” he adds, “is that I fry them in onion-flavored oil. You can also use regular oil — they’ll still come out delicious.”
Grandma Hella’s Latke Recipe
Ingredients:
Potato peels (well-scrubbed and cleaned)
4 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon salt
A pinch of black pepper
Oil for frying (preferably oil that’s been used to fry onions)
Instructions:
Wash the potatoes thoroughly with water and a scrubbing pad. Soak them in a bowl of cold water with ½ cup vinegar for 5 minutes.
Peel the potatoes and place the peels only in a bowl (you can save the potatoes themselves for mashed potatoes or baking).
Add flour, salt, and pepper to the peels.
Mix well and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes so the peels release some liquid.
Combine everything into a uniform batter.
Heat oil in a pan. Using a spoon, drop small portions of the mixture into the hot oil.
Flatten gently and fry until golden brown on both sides.
Remove and place on paper towels.
Serve hot—with sour cream or even a sprinkle of sugar, just as Grandma Hella did.
Bon appétit — and remember: these latkes once kept a soul alive.
