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Gerda Weissmann Klein
Gerda Weissmann Klein had a
comfortable and happy childhood in a town in southern Poland
until German soldiers invaded in September 1939. Within a
few months, her brother Artur was taken away by the Germans,
and the rest of the family was forced to live in the basement
of their home; later they had to move to shabby ghetto quarters.
In 1942, Gerda was separated from her parents and sent to
forced-labor camps.
Three years later, when her
camp was evacuated, she and other prisoners were led on a
death march that ended in the Czech town of Volary. Among
the Americans who liberated the survivors was a Jewish lieutenant
named Kurt Klein. Kurt visited Gerda frequently while she
was convalescing at the field hospital that had been established
in Volary. Gerda found out that her entire family had been
killed, except for an uncle in Turkey. When Kurt Klein's tour
of duty ended in September 1945, he asked Gerda to marry him,
expecting that she would be able to follow him to the U.S.
in short order. It would take nearly a year, however, before
they could be reunited and married in Paris.
Once Gerda settled in Buffalo,
New York, she joined several charitable organizations and
soon thereafter began to speak about her experiences during
the Holocaust. She has lectured throughout the country and
has written several books, including All But My Life, her
autobiography, The Hours After, co-authored by her husband,
and most recently, A Boring Evening At Home. One Survivor
Remembers, a documentary about her experiences during the
Holocaust, won an Academy Award in 1996. Another film that
features her story is shown regularly at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey
Show, CBS Sunday Morning and was featured on 60 Minutes and
Nightline.
Reprinted from: Escaping the Final Solution, McDougal Littell
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