All But My Life Book Report

For my second book report, I read the book “All But My Life” by Gerda Weissman Klein. I chose to read this book because I thought it sounded interesting, and I always like learning more about the Holocaust and World War II time periods. I didn’t know much about the book, other than the fact that it is a memoir, but I was excited to be able to read it and learn more about history from it. Gerda Weissman Klein is a fifteen year old girl that lives in Bielitz, Poland with her family. The story begins on September 3, 1939 when the Nazis invade her town. “There is a watch lying on the green carpet of the living room of my childhood. The hands seem to stand motionless at 9:10, freezing time when it happened.” Gerda’s family had been hiding the fact that there might be a war starting from her sick father, but they can’t anymore when their town is invaded. Arthur, Gerda’s brother, is required to leave in a Nazi transport in October with some other young men in their town, and Gerda never sees him again. Gerda’s family is eventually forced to sell most of their things and live in their basement, where their laundress had lived. Gerda and her close friend Ilse also visit a camp for young Jewish men, and Gerda meets Abek Feigenblatt, who falls in love with her, although Gerda only sees Abek as a friend. Erika, another friend of Gerda, sends her a letter telling her how her mom, brother, and boyfriend were forced to lie naked in the streets while Nazis riding horses trampled them to death, and Gerda then realizes how bad everything really is. Gerda’s family is moved into a Jewish ghetto in 1942, but soon all of the Jews hear that they will be moved again so the town will be Judenrein(free of Jews). Gerda gets separated from the rest of her family, never seeing them again. After getting separated from her mother, Gerda’s thoughts are, “My eyes remained dry. I felt my features turn stony. “Now I have to live,” I said to myself, “because I am alone and nothing can hurt me any more.”” Gerda is put in a camp in Sosnowitz, and Abek’s family tries to get her freedom, but she chooses to not go with them because she would eventually have to marry Abek. Ilse and Gerda are then switched to another labor camp, and Abek sends Gerda letters while she is there. In 1943, the girls at the camp are split into groups and are taken to another labor camp called Märzdorf, but Ilse later gets both her and Gerda switched to another camp called Landeshut because of how horrible it is. Nearby Landeshut, there was a men’s camp that was said to be the worst in Germany, and Abek voluntarily gets himself moved there just to be closer to Gerda. She feels guilty once she hears this, and the girls are transferred again in May of 1944. Gerda and Ilse still have hope that they will survive, and luckily, the new camp, Grünberg, isn’t as bad as Märzdorf. However, in January of 1945, conditions at the camp get worse and thousands more girls come in. They are forced to march to a concentration camp, and most of the girls in Gerda’s group die from cold and hunger. After marching for weeks, they finally arrive in the camp called Helmbrechts. The next month, they are forced to march again into Czechoslovakia and Ilse ends up dying, despite Gerda’s efforts to save her. One night during the march in a town named Volary, the group is locked into a …show more content…
Gerda Weissman Klein never lost hope that her life would get better, even though she went through such a horrible experience. She still has faith in humanity, and even in the terrible conditions of the camps and dealing with the loss of her family, Gerda and her friends manage to still support each other and see the light in everything. “My experience has taught me that all of us have a reservoir of untapped strength that comes to the fore at moments of crisis.” Her story was inspiring and beautifully written and had a great message of the importance of life and