"My Grandmother Married Her Liberator" Gerda & Kurt Klein, Holocaust Survivors, WWII 'Ritchie Boys' 🪖

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Last edited Mon Jun 8, 2026, 11:16 PM - Edit history (1)

- Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1 yr ago. (5:31 mins). - Description: For Valentine's Day, Lexi Klein, a young friend of the museum shares her grandparents' amazing love story. Both of her grandparents are Holocaust survivors; but while her grandmother, Gerda, was in Europe throughout the war, her grandfather, Kurt was able to escape in 1937... More in 'Description,' YouTube link.
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Wiki. Ed. - Gerda Weissmann Klein (May 8, 1924 – April 3, 2022) was a Polish-born American writer and human rights activist. Her autobiographical account of the Holocaust, All But My Life (1957), was adapted for the 1995 short film One Survivor Remembers, which received an Academy Award and an Emmy Award, and was selected for the National Film Registry. Weissmann married Kurt Klein (1920–2002) in 1946. The Kleins became advocates of Holocaust education and human rights, dedicating most of their lives to promoting tolerance and community service.
.. Gerda Weissmann, the 2nd child of manufacturing executive Julius Weissmann and Helene Weissmann, was born May 8, 1924, in Bielsko, Poland. She attended Notre Dame Gymnasium in Bielsko until the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Both of her parents, along with her older brother Arthur (b. 1919), were murdered in the Holocaust.
- Life under the Nazis, On Sept. 3, 1939, German troops invaded 15-year-old Weissmann's home in Bielsko, Poland. Shortly after the invasion began, the family received a telegram from Gerda's uncle saying the Germans were advancing quickly, and the family should leave Poland immediately. They stayed because Gerda's father had suffered a heart attack...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Weissmann_Klein

- The 'Ritchie Boys,' recruited to fight the Nazis. (2:15 mins), American Heroes Chanel, 2016. Dr. Guy Stern (Disting. Professor Emeritus). The so-called Ritchie Boys, mostly Jewish immigrants from Germany and Austria were specially trained in counterintelligence, interrogation, investigation and psychological warfare.
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https://www.history.com/articles/ritchie-boys-wwii-jewish-refugees-military-intelligence
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Wiki, Ed. - The Ritchie Boys, part of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service (MIS) at the War Dept., were an organization of soldiers in WWII with sizable numbers of German and Austrian recruits who were used primarily for interrogation of prisoners on the front lines and counter-intelligence in Europe.
Trained at secret Camp Ritchie in Washington County, Maryland, many of the total around 22,000 men and women in service were German-speaking immigrants to the U.S., often[quantify] Jews, who fled Nazi persecution...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Boys