Book Note: Gerda Weissmann Klein. All But My Life: A Memoir

Gerda Weissmann Klein. All But My Life: A Memoir

Gerda Weissmann was born in Poland in 1924. She was living with her parents and older brother when the Nazis invaded on September 1, 1939.

Soon after invasion her uncle sent a telegram to her family telling them to evacuate immediately. They stayed because her father had suffered a heart attack.

The Nazis reached her home town on September 3, 1939.

In 1942 her father, mother, and older brother were killed in a concentration camp.

The Nazis SS selected Gerda to work in a labor camp. Gerda jumped out of the truck in an effort to stay with her mother. Moshe Merin, the leader of the Jewish community in their town, forced her back in the truck and told her, “You are too young to die.”

Gerda was sent to a work camp near Volary, About 1350 women started the 106 day march to the camp. On March 6, 1945, 118 were alive at the end of the march.

American forces liberated the camp in May, 1945. After the war ended the town was given to Czechoslovakia and German residents were expelled in March, 1946.

These American forces included Lieutenant Kurt Klein who was born in Germany. He escaped to the United Stated as a teenager. His parents were killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Klein met Gerda when she was 20 years old. She had white hair and weighed 68 pounds. She haltingly told him that she was Jewish.

He told her that he was Jewish as well.

They were married in 1946 in Paris and came to America.

They lived in Buffalo, New York and had three children. Kurt Klein owned a printing business and Gerda wrote for a local newspaper.

In 1985 Kurt and Gerda moved to Arizona to be near their children and grandchildren.

In 1996 when the movie based on her story won an Oscar, she said the following at the awards:

“I have been in a place for six incredible years where winning meant a crust of bread and to live another day. Since the blessed day of my liberation I have asked the question, why am I here? I am no better. In my mind’s eye I see those years and days and those who never lived to see the magic of a boring evening at home. On their behalf I wish to thank you for honoring their memory, and you cannot do it in any better way than when you return to your homes tonight to realize that each of you who know the joy of freedom are winners.”

Also in 1996 the nation of Israel presented her with the international Lion of Judah award in Jerusalem.

In 2002 Kurt Klein died.

In 2006 Gerda was the keynote speaker in the United Nations first annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In 2011 she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She died in Phoenix in 2022 at 97 years old.

This book is a must read.

It is well-written detailed account of suffering and courage during one of the most vile episodes of the last century.