The Tragic Story Of Gerda Weissman Klein's All But My Life

“My mind was so dull, my nerves so worn from waiting, that only an emotionless vacuum remained” (213). Gerda Weissman Klein was one of the few fortunate Jews to survive the Holocaust and tell her story. She explains her tragic story through her own her memoir called “All But My Life”. Gerda made it through the Holocaust because of her loving family, loyal friends, and intuition of her own.

Gerda’s family played a crucial role in her survival. An example of this happened when Arthur and Gerda were walking home and passed the destroyed temple. Aurthur picked up a piece of glass from the ground and said “Look at that pillar. It is safe. We have to have faith. Never forget it Gerda”(17). Arthur gave Gerda the glass and she thought it was special.

The first one was Hanka. Gerda met her at Grunberg. Hanka was very helpful because whenever “she was called to help in the kitchen, she always managed to scrounge extra bits of food for [Gerda] and Ilse”(201). Even though it may not have been a lot of food, everything was appreciated during this disaster. Jews would do whatever they could to get their hands on any extra food because of the small rations. Similarly, Frau Kugler helped Gerda too. At one point Gerda was so sick that she could barely stand. While Gerda and two other girls were in their room, Frau Kugler came in yelling “Get dressed, quick, quick! This is a matter of life or death!”(132). Since all Jews who were sick and were not at the factory got sent to Aushwitz, Frau Kugler made them get dressed to go to the factory before the inspector saw. This showed how caring Frau Kugler was. The third friend that helped Gerda was Ilse. Gerda and Ilse were at Marzdorf, a very difficult and laborious camp. It was obvious they would die soon. Fortunately, Ilse got picked to leave the camp. Being the good friend she was, Isle would not leave the camp without Gerda. Ilse cried “my sister, my sister” to convince Frau Ausfsicht that Gerda was her sister(152). This genius plan worked and they moved on to the next camp. If Ilse wouldn’t have pulled that off, Gerda likely would have died, doing hard labor day and night. In contrast, Gerda’s intuition helped her