ALL BUT MY LIFE recounts the story of Gerda Weissmann, a young woman forced into slave labor for the Nazis during the Holocaust. Stripped from her father, mother, and brother, Gerda must endure cruel working conditions, little to no food, and harsh weather as she fights for survival during Nazi Germany in the 1940s. Gerda promised her father that she wouldn’t give up and with her mother’s last words of “Be Strong”, young Gerda keeps going, even when there is no hope left.

The book is divided into three parts. In Part One, we learn of Gerda and her immediate family before the war and during the beginning of the war. They are a family of pure strength and love. I was struck by the intense closeness of her family and cried when they were ripped apart.

In Part Two, we relive Gerda’s experiences during her time in the Nazi labor camps, being shuttled from one camp to the next, some better than others. The friendships Gerda is able to make with other girls at camp are heartwarming, yet heart wrenching. How hard it must be to become close to someone who may not be there the next minute, hour, or day? The decisions Gerda makes throughout this period are, at times, unbelievable, yet she survived. I have no doubt that she was meant to live to tell her story and that of her family and friends. What if Gerda had made a different decision at a crucial crossroads?

Finally, in Part Three, we are told of Gerda’s life after she was liberated by Lt. Kurt Klein, who becomes her husband. What an incredible love story.

This is a book of inspiration, faith, and hope. It will definitely make one think of problems in a new light. If the human spirit can endure what Gerda did, then we all can survive what is thrown at us, even when it seems like we cannot.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book to everyone. It’s phenomenal. I cannot praise it enough. Although it is not an easy book to read, the message it sends is one of hope and strength. We can all survive, we can all make it. Thank you for telling us your story, Mrs. Klein. It is not one I will ever forget. 5+ stars!

Jennifer
http://www.crazy-for-books.com ( )

As someone who is not a native speaker of English, Gerda Weissmann Klein writes masterfully. Her recollections of the time she spent as a young Jewish girl under Nazi rule are vividly, heartbreakingly eloquent. Klein spent the first part of the war with her parents in their home town of Beilitz, Poland, marginalized by the German invaders and forced to live with more and more hardship before finally being separated from them and sent to a series of work camps. After being forced to march from the final camp through the wintry wilderness of Germany to Czechoslovakia, she is finally liberated.
I guess I had a picture in my head of all the Jews being rounded up immediately at the start of the war, and spending the entire time in camps, which some were able to survive. I always wondered why, for the most part, they did not fight back. I realize after reading this book that this was a very inaccurate and uninformed idea. The marginalization happened so gradually and the propaganda was so overwhelming, plus people like Gerda had such a faith in humankind, thinking that people could not possibly be so cruel as to do the things they eventually ended up doing. I am ashamed that I never thought to learn more about this era prior to now.
Despite the horrid atrocity of the events in her life, Gerda writes with such sunniness and vitality that her story is not unbearably depressing. It is eminently readable and highly recommended.
The only thing I was bothered by while reading this was Klein's habit of telling what ended up happening to people as soon as we meet them, even though they continue to play into the story. For example, upon meeting Suse in the work camp, Gerda tells us Suse will die in the morning of the day they are liberated. Sues then continues to figure in to the story, all the while the reader knows she's doomed. This steals a little from the story, as the reader, already knowing Gerda will survive and Suse will not, has been spoiled by this knowledge. ( )

All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein is an excellent book full of hope and despair. The book starts in Bielitz, Poland at the beginning of World War 2. Most precisely, this book starts when the war started to affect her life-9:10 in the morning of September 3, 1939.

Gerda Weissmann was a happy girl who lived in a large Polish town named Bielitz. After the Germans took over, she was slowly deprived of all of the privileges that we take for granted. One by one, the Germans tore her family apart and moved her to a Ghetto. After the Ghetto, Gerda is shipped to various work camps over the course of six years. Gerda gives hope to many of the girls through her creativity and selfless actions. In most of the camps, work conditions are hard and food is scarce. After the turning point in the war, when the Germans realize they are going to lose, Gerda and thousands of other young girls are forced to march to their death at the infamous extermination camp Auschwitz.

The author is trying to tell us to never lose hope. That is the only way you could survive during the Holocaust. She wants us to know that we must see each other as equals. We are no better than anyone else just because we have a different skin color. It is our actions that determine who we are.

Holocaust survivor