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Oral history interview with Gerda Weissmann Klein

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1990.338.34 | RG Number: RG-50.037.0034

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    Oral history interview with Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Gerda Weissmann Klein, born in 1924 in Bielitz (now Bielsko-Biala), Poland, describes her father, mother, older brother, and her future husband, Kurt Klein (she shows pictures of them from before the war and herself after liberation); her normal childhood and attending a Catholic school, where a rabbi gave Jewish instruction; the German invasion in September 1939; selling their possessions and knitting sweaters to survive; her brother escaping to Russia and disappearing; being forced to move into the ghetto; having to wear the yellow star; sewing uniforms in a German shop with her mother; her father’s illness; neighbors helping each other; her father being taken away in June 1942; being separated on June 29, 1942 from her mother, who was sent to Auschwitz; hiding photographs in her boots; being sent to a transit camp for girls in Sosnowiec, Poland; working at a weaving center; working for three years in quarries; ending up in a spinning mill, where there was a lot of dust and tuberculosis; the girl inmates being X-rayed every 6 to 7 weeks; working night shifts; being marched out of the camp in January 1945; getting to Czechoslovakia, where people urged them to flee and some actually helped them; her best friend dying a day before the war ended; being locked in a barn with the other girls by the guards with a time bomb, which did not exploded because of heavy rain; being released by Czech people; two Americans (including her future husband) arriving and looking for translators; Kurt Klein’s job to negotiate surrenders of towns; the horrible conditions of the camp survivors; being in the hospital for several months; how neither her parents nor other members of her family survived; Kurt being discharge in September 1945 and their marriage in France in 1946; making sure that her children knew about her experience; the importance of telling their story; how people in the camps helped each other to survive; and the expressions of love and friendship in the camps.
    Interviewee
    Gerda W. Klein
    Interviewer
    Mrs. Toby Back

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    1 videocassette (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Corporate Name
    United States. Army

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Toby Ticktin Back of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo conducted the interview with Gerda Weissmann Klein with the cooperation and support of WIVB-TV in Buffalo, NY. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received copies of interviews from the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo from 1990 - 1993. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection by transfer from the Oral History branch in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:08:22
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511793

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