Gerda Weissmann Klein

Gerda Weissmann was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Bielsko, Poland, a town near the Polish-Czechoslovak border. Her father, Julius, worked in the fur business. Her mother, Helene, raised Gerda and her older brother, Arthur. Gerda began her education in a Polish public school, but later attended a private Catholic girls school. As a child, Gerda enjoyed skiing and swimming.

1933-39: On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The Weissmann family witnessed the Nazi takeover of their town. Nazi flags hung from buildings and German authorities quickly imposed antisemitic measures. Jews had to give up their bicycles, radios, and other belongings. Gerda was forbidden from attending school and her father’s business was confiscated. Most devastatingly, Gerda had to say goodbye to her brother. Shortly after the invasion, Arthur and other young Jewish men were ordered to report for forced labor. But Gerda and her parents later learned that this had been a ruse. Instead, the men had been deported east in freight trains and forced across the border into Soviet occupied territory.

1940-45: Eventually, Gerda and her parents were forced to move out of their home and into the Bielsko ghetto. In June 1942, Gerda was separated from her parents and sent to the Bolkenhain labor camp. She was later transferred to several other labor camps.  In these camps, Gerda was forced to work under horrible conditions in textile mills with other young women. Food was scarce and tuberculosis was rampant. 

In January 1945, Gerda and the other women were forced on a death march. They had to walk for months in the late winter and early spring. Many prisoners died along the way. In May 1945, Gerda and the other surviving women were liberated in the Czech town of Volary by American soldiers, including Kurt Klein (1920-2002). Kurt was a German Jew who had fled Nazi Germany in 1937. Gerda’s parents and brother did not survive the Holocaust. 

In 1946, Gerda and Kurt married and she joined him in the United States. In 1957, Gerda published a memoir titled All But My Life. Her story later became an Oscar-winning documentary called One Survivor Remembers, produced in 1995 by HBO in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Gerda Weissmann Klein died in 2022.