Holocaust survivor Gerda Klein shares with learners, young and old, the lessons of history

Looking back at years of captivity and forced labor under the Nazi regime, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein recalled a precious gift that she received from a childhood friend. A simple gesture on the part of young Ilse Kleinzähler made a lasting impression on Gerda. Both girls had been sold to the Germans for 10 Reichmarks and placed in a series of brutal slave labor camps by 1942. One afternoon, Ilse found a raspberry in the gutter. She carried it in her pocket all day long, wrapped in a leaf that she had plucked through the barbed wire. One single dust-covered raspberry. And she gave this treasure to a friend. Sometime later, Ilse lay in the arms of 20-year-old Gerda, weak from starvation. Ilse told her friend that she harbored no anger toward anyone and made two requests of Klein: that Ilse’s parents would never learn how she died and that Klein would hold on for another week. Soon after, Gerda was liberated by American forces in May 1945. During the 2006–2007 school year, students from my Battle Creek, MI, high school joined numerous others from across our state in reading Klein’s memoir, All But My Life (Hill and Wang, 1957). Published in 57 editions and still in print after 50 years, the book is the inspiring account of a remarkable individual who endured unspeakable horror during World War II. But ours became much more than a passive reading experience, thanks to the commitment of the participants, Web-based technology, and Klein herself. All But My Life was selected for a group read following our community’s successful hosting of two traveling exhibitions from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). (See “Witness to History,” February 2006, pp. 54–57). The exhibitions had a profound effect on local residents, and teens and adults alike expressed interest in learning more about the Holocaust. With funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and support from Battle Creek’s local Willard Public Library, Klein was invited to speak to our community. With the assistance of USHMM colleagues, I prepared lesson plans and a teaching guide based on All But My Life, which I presented with USHMM Teaching Fellow Darryle Clott at the Michigan Association for Media in Education conference in October 2006. The response was overwhelming. More than 3,400 requests to attend Klein’s address poured in from schools across Michigan. One district in faraway Flushing was particularly intent on having its middle school students see Klein. To cover the $1,400 cost of transportation, the kids held dances and other fund-raising events, and the Flint Jewish Federation contributed $300 to the cause. Still, demand far exceeded the Kellogg Auditorium’s seating capacity of 1,900. For students who remained behind—in Flushing and elsewhere—a Web-based solution would effectively bring the Battle Creek event to them. Live streaming of the presentation was made available free of charge to any school, thanks to the Ann Arbor-based Merit Network and Internet2, a nonprofit collaboration launched by universities to provide high-speed online access to benefit education. (To view the archived Webcast, visit www.merit.edu/events/archive/specialevents/kleinwebcast.) Those interested also had the option of joining Battle Creek area students in a blog discussion of Klein’s book (mlincoln.lishost.org), which included related curricular resources (mlincoln.lishost.org/?page_id=12).

A Book Blog Is Born

Formal blog participants included students of Lakeview High School teacher Scott Durham, whose social studies class read All But My Life as part of a Holocaust/World War II unit. Two other groups from local high schools, Harper Creek and Pennfield, joined Durham’s class for the Web-based conversation. In a cross-generational turn, senior citizens from the Lifelong Learning program at nearby Kellogg Community College (KCC) also blogged during the two-month period preceding Klein’s visit. I acted as blog administrator and moderated all posted comments. Although the blog discussion was fairly structured and tied to the curriculum, students were encouraged to offer personal reflections. “I totally agree with Gerda when she wrote: 'Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden,’” commented one student blogger. “When life is too hard, death seems like an escape from the pain. There have been times in my life where life was so hard that I did not want to go on. This occurred last year when I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up again. Going to school and doing work was the hardest it had ever been and was an extreme burden for me. The fact that I survived the hardest year of my life makes me feel extremely privileged…. There cannot be sunshine without rain, and you cannot feel joy without feeling pain. I am feeling stronger and more powerful than I have ever felt in my life.” KCC’s lifelong learners deserve a great deal of credit for their willingness to tackle a computer and plunge into cyberspace. Three elder participants spent time in Durham’s classroom, signing on to workstations and blogging alongside the teens. “Part of the goal of the class was to understand where people of different generations were coming from,” says Durham. “It was like an online book club.” Among the senior bloggers was 76-year-old Esther Smith. She can remember a time when people debated whether the U.S. should enter World War II. In a memory that she shared with the students, Smith recalled sitting at the dinner table, when her cousin came running into the house shouting, “Roosevelt has declared war.” From that night on, Smith’s family drew the shades at night and started saving grease and tinfoil from cigarette wrappers for the war effort. The seniors were learning, too, interested in today’s world, but with the perspective that comes with age. The students enjoyed their company, as young people often do, warming to someone much older and in a different way than they would relate to a teacher, who might be closer in age to their own parents. Senior citizens are “cool” to these kids. These interactions became particularly precious, given the fact that we’re losing members of this older generation, Holocaust survivors and veterans among them. There are simply fewer and fewer opportunities to make these kinds of connections. These kids were very fortunate to have this experience, and I think they knew it. A final activity introduced the concept of community service. Lakeview students were among those selected to take part in Stand Up! Speak Out! Lend a Hand! an interactive video conference coordinated by MAGPI, a regional Internet2 server for the Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey research and education communities. At the November 16, 2006 event, kids from across the country “met” Klein, who challenged them to pursue their own service projects and combat social injustice wherever they lived. In January 2007, on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the students reconvened via videoconference. The Lakeview teens shared their acts of service: helping construct two local homes through Habitat for Humanity, assembling school supply kits for Iraqi children, and visiting patients at the veteran’s hospital in Battle Creek. Students from Lakeview, Harper Creek, and Pennfield High Schools continued performing community service throughout the year. Each school prepared a report or video clip about their efforts, which they presented in person to Klein in April.

Klein Visits Battle Creek

Following months of planning (and intense blogging) by a dedicated group of participants, the long-awaited day arrived. Klein entered the Kellogg Auditorium on April 16 and met with a standing ovation from the capacity crowd of more than 1,900 students. Her address did not focus on the horrors of the Holocaust but rather on the importance of friendship and freedom. To hear her tell the story of young Ilse and her gift of friendship was an experience beyond measure. Students listened intently as Klein recounted the amazing story of liberation, when she met American soldier Kurt Klein, whom she later married. She weighed just 68 pounds at the time of her rescue and her hair was completely white. Yet Klein emphasized a lesson that she learned from her late husband: pain should not be wasted in that it can teach and alleviate other pain. Freedom is the greatest gift, she added. “Be proud of who you are, be proud of being an American,” said Klein. “If you don’t like what your elected officials are doing, you can write a letter without fear.” Klein said, before the war, she considered it boring to spend an evening at home. In the course of her experience, those evenings became her heart’s desire, she told the Michigan teens. Klein has learned to cherish moments spent with family and friends, and she urged her audience to do the same. May all those boring evenings at home be blessed with good health, joy, and peace, said Klein.

---

Margaret Lincoln is a media specialist at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, MI.