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Gerda Weissmann Klein 48 Arizona Women

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Gerda Weissmann Klein 48 Arizona Women GERDA WEISSMANN KLEIN CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT / SOCIAL CHANGE Gerda began writing and speaking about her experiences Klein’s life as a young woman in Europe during World War II during the Holocaust. is documented in her autobiography, “All But My Life.” The title describes what she lost under the brutal rule of the Nazi After Kurt retired in 1985, they moved to Arizona to be regime – her home, her freedom, her family and best friend. closer to their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in the Phoenix area. The book is the foundation for “One Survivor Remembers,” an HBO documentary that won Oscar and Emmy awards. She has dedicated more than six decades of her life to crusading for tolerance and other social causes. Klein was 15 when German troops invaded the town in Poland where she lived with her parents and brother. The “All But My Life” is in its 66th edition and is used in middle family was forced to live in the basement of their home for and high school classes throughout the world. The film three years. “Testimony,” based on her story, is on permanent exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in the nation’s capitol. Later separated from her parents, she was imprisoned for the next three years in slave-labor and concentration camps. She has spoken in schools and to community groups in all 50 states. Her portrait is featured on the cover of the textbook As the American Army and their allied forces overtook the “The Americans,” along with photographs of Franklin Nazis, Klein was among 2,000 women forced on a four-month, Delano Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan 350-mile death march through bitter cold, during and Norman Schwarzkopf. which they faced starvation and random execution. Fewer than 120 of the women lived through it. Gerda has addressed audiences around the globe, meeting numerous world leaders. In January 2006, she delivered Among the victims was Klein’s best friend, Ilse Kleinzahler. the keynote address at the United Nations’ First Annual She died, at age 18, in Gerda’s arms a week before liberation Observance of the Holocaust. day. In 2011 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential The Germans left the survivors locked in an abandoned Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. bicycle factory to which they attached a time bomb. Miraculously, Klein recalls, heavy rain fell, and the moisture “Everything I have been able to do happened because of the prevented the bomb from going off. miracle of coming to America,” Klein says. “I was rescued from darkness and brought into the light of freedom. I’ve U.S. Army Intelligence Officer Kurt Klein was among the first always felt the obligation to give back to this country whatever to liberate her camp on May 7, 1945, a day before Gerda’s I could.” 21st birthday. When Kurt first saw Gerda she weighed 68 pounds, her hair had turned white from malnutrition and she She continues doing that today, along with granddaughter had not been able to take a bath in three years. Alysa Ullman, through Citizenship Counts. As a teenager, Kurt Klein had been sent from Germany to Klein’s says her own “American dream” is to enable safety in the United States where he lived with other family youngsters “to see the pride and gratitude” immigrants and Gerda Weissmann Klein describes her life as nothing less members. His parents were left behind, and did not survive new citizens have for the United States. Instilling in them “an than “miraculous.” the war. understanding of the sacrifices made for their freedom” is what she hopes will be part of her legacy. Most of her time and energy is now focused on encouraging “We had that tragedy in common,” Gerda says. today’s youth to value their rights as United States citizens She and Kurt co-authored the book “The Hours After – More personally, Klein is satisfied that she has passed on a and take pride in being Americans. Letters of Love and Longing,” featuring letters they wrote to sense of obligation to country and community to her three each other during a nine-month separation when he returned children – Vivian Ullman, Leslie Simon and James Klein – She founded Citizenship Counts, an Arizona-based national to the United States for Army duties and she spent several and their families. nonprofit organization that educates middle and high school months recovering in a hospital in Czechoslovakia. The book students on the tenets of citizenship, encourages them to chronicles the romance leading to their marriage in Paris in “They are doing things to help people and bring good things appreciate their rights and responsibilities, and provides 1946. into the world,” she says. “I am proud of that.” them opportunities to celebrate their citizenship by hosting naturalization ceremonies or participating in service learning Kurt brought her to Buffalo, N.Y., where he started a printing projects. business and the couple raised two daughters and a son as 48 ARIZONA WOMEN ARIZONA’S MOST INTRIGUING WOMEN .
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