Gerda Klein

"To understand freedom, you must be deprived of it. Do not neglect it. It is the greatest gift." --Gerda Weissmann Klein

For decades author, historian, and speaker Gerda Weissmann Klein has captivated audiences worldwide with her powerful message of hope, inspiration, love and humanity. In her speeches and books, Klein draws from her wealth of life experiences: from surviving the Holocaust, meeting her future husband on the day of her liberation, to her journey to the United States, accepting an Oscar and Emmy for a documentary based on her life, and her constant fight to promote tolerance and combat hunger.

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Living history. Gerda Klein has captivated audiences of all ages and faiths with her powerful story and her uplifting presentations that take audiences through one of the darkest eras of our world's history while still instilling a sense of hope.Klein's account of living through the Holocaust is documented in her autobiography, All But My Life, in print for 46 years in 55 editions, which has attained the status of a classic. Her testimony is so compelling that All But My Life has become required reading in some school districts throughout the U.S. Her most recent book, Wings of EPOH, the uplifting story of a young boy struggling with an autism spectrum disorder and the personal courage he finds from an unlikely relationship with an empathetic butterfly.

Klein was featured on the cover of a McDougall-Littel educational textbook, The Americans, alongside such other notable figures as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, and Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf. In January of 2006, Klein was the keynote speaker at the United Nation's first official observance of the Holocaust.

Hope in prose. Klein has authored books on a wide variety of topics for an array of different audiences. These include The Blue Rose, a story about a mentally-disabled child. The book subsequently became a film in India. Her work, Promise of a New Spring, is devoted to teaching young children about the Holocaust, while A Passion for Sharing is a biography of New Orleans philanthropist Edith Rosenwald Stern, which garnered its author the Valley Forge Freedom Award. In 1996, Klein was one of five women to receive the prestigious international Lion of Judah award in Jerusalem.

Gerda Wessmann Klein's constant striving for the preservation of human rights and dignity has earned her seven Doctorates of Humane Letters, along with countless other awards awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1998 along with her late husband, she founded the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation to promote tolerance, lessen prejudice, and encourage community service focused on local hunger relief. Klein has also created Citizenship Counts, an organization that encourages students to value their American citizenship. Her recent television appearances include 60 Minutes, Oprah, and CBS Sunday Morning. Her story provides hope and inspiration on a universal stage. Her message knows no bounds and has no limits.