Watching the Netflix documentary World War II: From the Front Lines, I was riveted by the interviews with Gerda Weissmann Klein and Kurt Klein in the sixth episode of the series. Mrs. Klein lost her family and closest friends in the Holocaust. She worked as a slave laborer until the SS put her on a 350-mile death march with other women survivors of her work camp at the end of the war. Most of them died along the way. The SS deposited the remainder in an abandoned factory and placed a time bomb on it intended to kill them all. Hearing of the women locked in the warehouse, United States Army Lieutenant Klein took off with a fellow soldier to rescue them.
Mrs. Klein told her own story in All But My Life and several other books as well as in the 40-minute documentary One Survivor Remembers (posted on the site of the United States Holocaust Museum and here on YouTube). The documentary won an Academy Award in 1996. Mrs. Klein was awarded a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in February 2011. The video of the documentary is unembeddable because it is not appropriate for all ages, but you can click on the links to view it.
The documentary is full of Mrs. Klein’s unbelievable eloquence in her second or third language. She is a natural storyteller. Full of heartbreaking moments, the documentary illustrates the persistence of memory, the bonds of family and friends, the inexplicable coincidences and ironies of life, all set against the backdrop of the overwhelming evil of the Final Solution. Although it has an ending that vindicates hope, her vivid recollections remain haunting. Her story also resonates with Israel’s current ordeal.
Mrs. Klein died in 2022 at the age of 97. The New York Times obituary by Clay Risen captures some of the drama of her life, but there’s nothing like hearing it from her.
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