"I pray you never stand at any crossroads in your own lives, but if you do, if the darkness seems so total, if you think there is no way out, remember, never ever give up. The darker the night, the brighter the dawn, and when it gets really, really dark, this is when one sees the true brilliance of the stars." These words illustrate the courage and inner strength that made it possible for Gerda Weissmann Klein to endure the horrifying conditions of the Holocaust.

Gerda Weissmann, the second child of Julius Weissmann (fur manufacturing executive) and Helene Mueckenbrunn Weissmann (housewife), was born on May 8, 1924, in Bielsko, Poland. She attended Notre Dame Gymnasium in Bielsko until the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Both of her parents, as well as her older brother Arthur (b. 1919), died during the Holocaust. Miraculously, Gerda survived the ghetto, deportation, slave-labor camps, and the infamous three-month death march from the Polish-German border to southern Czechoslovakia. As the sole survivor of her family, she has provided the world a glimpse of her ordeal through her written and oral testimonies.  

In 1946, Gerda Weissmann married her liberator, Kurt Klein (1920-2002), an American intelligence officer, in Paris. After their marriage, they traveled to the United States, where Kurt Klein owned a printing business and was an editor. Kurt Klein, a German Jew, had been sent to the United States in 1937 as a safety measure, and later he served in the armed forces. His parents remained in Germany and died in Auschwitz. The Kleins have three children: Vivian E. (b. 1948), Leslie A. (b. 1952), and James Arthur (b. 1957).

In 1957, Klein published her first book, All But My Life (now in its thirty-ninth edition). This remarkable autobiography recounts her experiences during the Holocaust and has been used as a primary source for Holocaust studies in this country as well as Great Britain. Her Holocaust experiences were also the subject of an HBO special, One Survivor Remembers, which received an Oscar for Best Documentary-Short in 1996, a TV Emmy Award, and two Cable Ace Awards. Gerda Weissmann Klein's story also is presented in the "Testimony" film, which is part of the permanent exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Her other books include A Passion for Sharing, which received the Valley Forge Freedom Award.   In 1997, she received an appointment to the United States Holocaust Commission by President Clinton. In 1998 the Kleins founded the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation to promote education, teach tolerance, lessen prejudice and encourage community service. Throughout her life, Klein has been an inspiration. Her response to the Holocaust, her devotion to her family, her work with all types of children, her commitment to the American Jewish community and Israel, her active support for the war against hunger, racism, and intolerance, and her prolific writing and lecturing are all examples of her dynamic role as an American Jewish woman in the twentieth century. Her life exemplifies the ability to overcome adversity by striving to link a fractured past with the future of American Judaism.

Primary Source: Jewish Women's Archive