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Birth of Gerda Weissmann Klein
Gerda Weissmann Klein was born in Bielitz, Poland, on the 8th of May, 1924. The Weissmann family were a Jewish family. Gerda's mother, Helene and brother, Arthur were born in Bielitz and her father, Julius had lived there for over 20 years. Gerda spent most of her childhood in Bielitz. -
Germany invades Poland.
Germany invades Poland and to Gerda's suprise her neighbours welcome the Nazis with open arms. Sanctions start to be imposed on the Jewish population. -
Gerda's brother is forced to leave.
Gerda's brother, Arthur, is forced to leave in a Nazi transport with all the other young Jewish men in town. Gerda never meets her brother again though recieves letters from him throughout the war. -
Jews start to be oppressed
Aryan neighbours start to take advantage of the situation facing the Jews and takeover Jewish shops and kick their Jewish neighbours out their houses. Gerda's family are told they will be moved into a Jewish ghetto.Gerda and her childhood friend Ilse go to visit a camp for young Jewish males and she meets a man named abek who falls in love with her, though the feeling is not mutual and she only sees him as a friend. -
Gerda's family is forced into a Jewish ghetto
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Jewish Ghetto is liquidated and Gerda is seperated from her family. Gerda never sees her parents agian.
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Gerda is sent to her first concentraion camp.
Gerda is sent to Sosnowitz, a transit camp. Abek's family makes sacrifices to try and rescue her, though she is not inclined to accept as she feels that if she does, she will be forced to marry Abek. -
Gerda and her friend Ilse are transported to labour camp, Landeshut, that specialises in weaving to help the German war effort,.
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Gerda is transported Marzdorf, a labour camp.
Marzdorf was described by Gerda as the worst and toughest camp she was at. After she refused advances by a German officer, she was forced to work day and night shifts. -
Gerda and her friend get transfered
Ilse, Gerda's friend, manages to get a transfer to another labour camp which specialises in weaving. She essentially saved Gerda from being overworked. -
Gerda and Ilse are transferred again.
Gerda and Ilse are transferred again. They are transferred to a camp called Grunberg, where they find the treatment quite harsh, though not as brutal as Marzdorf. -
Gerda and Ilse are sent on a death march.
As the war continues, Germany starts to weaken. Germany finds out that they are being invaded by the Allied forces and girls from other camps start to arrive at the camp, increasing the population of the camp to over 4000 people. The girls a seperated into two groups and told they are to march to another concentration camp. After a few days into the march, girls start to die of fatigue and starvation. -
Arrive at Helmbrechts
After walking through ruins of bombed German cities, the girls arrive at Helmbrechts, a concentration camp. -
'Death March' begins again
The girls are forced to start marching again and head towards Czechoslovakia. -
Ilse dies
Ilse gets weaker as they continue on the journey and soon dies along with most of the most of the prisioners. -
Liberation
Whilst on the march they reach a town called Volary. The SS officers lock the remaining girls in a factory and place a bomb outside the building. The bomb does not detonate and soon after, Allied forces arrive and liberate them. During the liberation Gerda talks to an American soldier, Kurt Klein, and oddly enough, Kurt is Jewish by origin and only moved to America shortly after the Nazi's came into power. Gerda and Kurt have an instant connection and Gerda goes back to America with Kurt.