Gerda Weissmann Klein

Gerda Weissmann was born in 1924 in a part of Poland that was part of the German empire before WWI. She had idyllic childhood with her parents and her older brother Arthur. Then in September of 1939 the Germans invaded Poland and Gerda could not do many of the things that she liked to do. Shortly after this her older brother Arthur got a summons to report to the nearest train station to be taken to a work camp. Except for a few letters he was never seen or heard from again. Gerda and her parents still lived in their house, but shortly after Arthurs departure they were forced to move into their basement and the "Aryans" living in the basement were able to move into the house. They lived in the basement for about a year and a half. During the time that the Weissmanns lived in the basement Gerda met a man that she liked named Abek. They dated for a while, but she did not want to marry him and he ended up dying in a concentration camp. After about a year and a half the Weissmanns were