— Gerda Weissmann Klein - PowerPoint Presentation

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Gerda Weissmann KleinTimeline LayerSlide2

Gerda Weissmann was born in Bielitz, Poland (see star on the map), a town right on the border.

— US Holocaust Memorial Museum

May 8, 1924Slide3

Germans invade Poland, the start of World War II.

“On Friday morning, the first of September, the drone of a great many German planes had brought most of the people of our little town into the streets. The radio was blasting the news that the Germans had crossed our frontier at Cieszyn and that we were at war! Hastily, roadblocks had been erected. Hysteria swept over the people and large numbers left town that day.”--Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My Life

September 1, 1939 (1)Slide4

Blanka was an only child in a close-knit family in Lodz, Poland. Her father died in 1937. After the German invasion of Poland, Blanka and her mother remained in Lodz with Blanka's grandmother, who was unable to travel. Along with other relatives, they were forced into the Lodz ghetto in 1940. There, Blanka worked in a bakery. She and her mother later worked in a hospital in the Lodz ghetto, where they remained until late 1944 when they were deported to the Ravensbrueck camp in Germany. From Ravensbrueck, Blanka and her mother were sent to a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. Blanka was forced to work in an airplane factory (Arado-Werke). Her mother was sent to another camp. Soviet forces liberated Blanka in spring 1945. Blanka, living in abandoned houses, made her way back to Lodz.

September 1, 1939 (2)

http://bit.ly/invasionofpolandSlide5

Germans invade Gerda’s town of Bielitz, Poland, only twenty miles from the border:

“A swastika was flying from the house across the street. My God! They seemed prepared. All but us, they knew. A big truck filled with German soldiers was parked across the street. Our neighbors were serving them wine and cakes, and screaming as though drunk with joy...I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t seem to be able to grasp the reality of what had happened. What are those people doing? The same people I had known all my life. They have betrayed us.” Gerda Weissman Klein,

All But My Life

September 3, 1939

Invading German troops enter the town of Lodz. Poland, September 8, 1939.

— Wide World PhotoSlide6

Arthur, Gerda’s brother, was forced to register and was taken away to work as a forced laborer. He never saw his family again.

A German soldier or policeman leads a group of Jewish forced laborers away from the site of a bombed out building, where they have been clearing rubble.

--United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Michael O'Hara

October 19, 1939Slide7

Gerda and her family are forced to leave their home and live in the Bielski ghetto. They were forced to get id cards like the one to the left.

Wartime passport photograph of a young Jewish woman from Bielsko Biala, Poland. Pictured is Herta Frohlich.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Herta Frohlich Brann

April 1942Slide8

“...On May 8, I woke up with Papa and Mama kissing me and saying ‘Happy birthday.’ Mama pressed something into my hand. An orange! I hadn’t seen one in almost three years. ‘Where did you get it, Mama?’ But Mama would not tell. She smiled with the old merry twinkle in her sad eyes. Mama had always loved surprises. Papa and Mama wanted me to eat all of the orange, but finally they each accepted a section. Later I learned from the Kollanders that Mama had given a valuable ring to obtain the one orange. It was the last birthday gift I was ever to get from my parents.” --Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My Life

May 8, 1942

http://bit.ly/gerdabirthdaySlide9

After Gerda was separated from her father and mother, she was sent by train to the labor camp of Bolkenhein to work in a weaving mill.

July 2, 1942

http://bit.ly/gerdafirstcampSlide10

Gerda was transferred to Marzdorf:

“The first day I was picked for a bricklaying detail along with four more girls...A high pile of bricks was on the ground. We were told to form a line and throw the bricks from hand to hand until they reached a man who apparently was an experienced brick layer. At first I thought I would never be able to do it. The bricks came too fast, their weight exhausted my arms, tore at my hands, and threatened to crush my fingers..I felt tears of pain welling up in my eyes and I wondered how I would last through the day. Before long, however, I caught on to the rhythm of the work and it became easier.” --Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My Life

August 1943

A member of a Jewish labor battalion lays bricks in Hajduhadhaz.

--United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of John GerrardSlide11

Gerda was shipped to Landeshut to once again work in the weaving mills:

“We were weaving white silk for parachutes and time and again we were warned against possible mistakes which would be considered sabotage. Handling four looms was very hard since the thousands upon thousands of fine silk threads shone like liquid silver and reflected millionfold the lights overhead. It was most difficult to notice when a thread broke and got entangled in the fabric. During those ten months on the night shift at Landeshut my eyes suffered seriously and always burned and itched unmercifully.” --Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My Life

Fall 1943

A Jewish man operates a loom in an unidentified ghetto.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Benjamin (Miedzyrzecki) MeedSlide12

Gerda and Ilse are shipped to Grunberg:

“We were taken to the spinning room. There I saw the girls, living skeletons with yellowish-gray skin drawn tight over prominent cheekbones; there were gaping holes in their mouths where teeth had either been knocked out or rotted out...I was put to tending one of those monstrous machines. I thought I would never learn to operate it, to tie the knots before the machine, which moved rapidly, could smash my fingers. Wherever I looked, the threads tore. I kept running from one break to another until I reached a point of complete exhaustion. Worst of all, my throat felt dry and itchy from the dust and lint in the air.” Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My Life

May 8, 1944

Jewish women at work spinning yarn in the Glubokoye ghetto.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Karl KatzSlide13

Over 1,800 women began the march, but they were divided into two groups: 700 of them were sent in a northwesterly direction and ended up at Bergen-Belsen. Gerda was in the second group of 1,100, which marched for 106 days and 890 kilometers in a southwesterly direction. Only 120 women su

rvived from the second group.

January 29, 1945

Beginning of the death march from Grunberg, a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen:

“The outer gates were open when we reached the courtyard. Stretching as far as the eye could see were columns of girls. I was shocked to see so many...We were divided into two transports amidst much whipping and screaming by the SS...We four were in a column that was doomed...the other column was liberated much sooner. Had I been part of it my fate would have been different. Less suffering, yes, but less happiness, too, I am sure.” --Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My LifeSlide14

Gerda Weissman on a list of prisoners transferred from Gross Rosen to Flossenburg.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, International Tracing Service

March 5, 1945Slide15

Gerda Weissman on a list of prisoners transferred from Gross Rosen to Flossenburg sub-camp Helmbrechts March 6, 1945.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, International Tracing Service

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Now we came to another camp, Hembrechts. It wasn’t a death camp; we saw with relief that there were people there, and no furnaces...We were put into an empty barracks with a dirt floor. I looked at the electrified wire along the fence and again I had that terrible feeling of being trapped. I thought that our chances of survival were much better out in the open, no matter what the circumstances. Before we entered the barracks we stood in the freezing courtyard and undressed down to our shoes. Our clothes were bundled up and taken away. We were given a strange assortment of clothing, still wet, that had been dipped in a solution said to kill vermin.” Gerda Weissmann Klein,

All But My Life

March 6, 1945Slide16

Gerda was liberated by the American Army after a death march, wearing the ski boots her father insisted would help her to survive. She was near death in an abandoned factory with other women in Volary, Czechoslovakia.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

May 7, 1945 (1)

http://bit.ly/gerdavideo1Slide17

Kurt Klein was the first American soldier who entered the factory in Volary, Czechoslovakia on May 7, 1945, liberating the remaining women from the death march. In 1942, Kurt joined the United States Army and was trained in military intelligence. In Europe, he interrogated prisoners of war. In May 1945, he took part in the surrender of a village in Czechoslovakia and returned the next day to assist over 100 Jewish women who had been abandoned there during a death march. Kurt's future wife, Gerda, was one of the women in this group.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

May 7, 1945 (2)

http://bit.ly/kurtkleinvideo1Slide18

Major Frank Ankner with the 5th Infantry Division, Medical Battalion, takes the pulse of a female Jewish survivor of a death march at an American military field hospital in Volary, Czechoslovakia.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

May 8, 1945Slide19

Under the supervision of Jewish chaplain Herman Dicker, 5th Infantry Division, 3rd U.S. Army, a German civilian exhumes a mass grave containing the corpses of Jewish women who died at the end of a death march from Helmbrechts, a sub-camp of Flossenbuerg. The woman, Mina Singer, is a survivor of the march, and was the oldest of the group.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Dr. Robert G. Waits

May 11, 1945Slide20

Gerda and Kurt Klein married in Paris.Close-up portrait of Jewish serviceman Lt. Kurt Klein.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerda Weissmann Klein

June 18, 1946Slide21

Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein has spent a lifetime educating others about the need for tolerance and understanding. For 60 years, she has written and spoken about her experiences in Nazi slave labor camps and on a death march through Germany at the end of the war, intended to eliminate all remaining witnesses. Klein survived that march, and, in fact, met her husband among the American soldiers who liberated her in 1945. Her experiences—like her writings—are full of tragedy, but also of hope.

Welcome to

Voices on Antisemitism

, a free podcast series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I'm Daniel Greene. Every other week, we invite a guest to reflect about the many ways that antisemitism and hatred influence our world today. Here's Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein.

December 7, 2006

http://bit.ly/kleinpodcast