One Survivor Remembers Gerda Weissmann Klein Video Guide

1. On September 1, 1939, WWII began with the German invasion of ______.

2. Gerda Weissmann’s brother ______was 19 years old. He was a student of ______at the local technical school.

3. Within weeks of invasion, the abled-bodied Jewish ______of Bielsko were forced to register for forced labor.

4. Many ethnic Germans living in Bielsko welcomed the German ______and were given the homes of displaced Jewish families.

5. The Weissmanns were confined to the ______of their home.

6. In 1942, Polish Jews were deported to slave labor, ______, and killing centers.

7. On June 29, 1942, the Jewish women of Bielsko and their children were ______by the German authorities.

8. Gerda Weissmann was deported to a slave labor factory that produced ______for the German military.

9. Gerda Weissmann would spend ______years in camps along the German Polish border. For Gerda, the conditions of slave labor in Marzdor, Germany were the most intolerable.

10. During the final stages of the war, the Nazis tried to destroy all ______of their crimes, especially living ______.

11. Prisoners were forcibly evacuated from the camps, largely on foot. These evacuations became known as ______marches.

12. The women were divided into two groups. Gerda Weismann and her fellow prisoners were to endure three months of exposure, ______, and arbitrary executions.

13. The ______march would continue into the spring of 1945.

14. By May 1945, the death march came to a halt in the town of ______, Czechoslovakia.

15. The ______guards abandoned the survivors of the march in a vacant bicycle factory in the outskirts of Volary.

16. U.S. Army troops entered Volary on ______.

17. Lieutenant Kurt Klein was born in Walldorf, Germany. In 1937, his parents had sent him to safety in the ______.

18. Gerda Klein lives in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2002, Kurt, 82, died after ______years of marriage to Gerda.

After Viewing the Video Reflection—Essential Questions—Answer 4 of the 8 questions in complete sentences. You may choose which 4 questions to answer.

1. What scenes were most powerful for you, and why? What lessons or messages did that scene offer?

2. How did the Nazis dehumanize Jews? How did Gerda Weissmann work to overcome dehumanization, and who helped her?

3. During the ordeal in the Nazi camps, Weissmann says she fantasized about enjoying a simple morning with her family or deciding what dress to wear to an imagined party. What simple things in your own life do you think you’d fantasize about if everything was taken away? What ordinary things might you take for granted?

4. The film focuses on the persecution of Jews in the Holocaust, but others were also murdered, including Soviet prisoners of war, Roma (Gypsies), gay men, and Communists. In what ways do you see persecution happening in today’s world? What groups are being targeted? What can we do to work against prejudice and intolerance?

5. In many ways, this film is about hope for the future. Who are the heroes of the film? What did they do that makes you hopeful? What can you do to make the world a better place?

6. During the Holocaust, what strategies were used to create distinctions between “us” and “them”? What were the consequences of these distinctions?

7. What are the costs of injustice, hatred, and bigotry?

8. What choices do people make in the face of injustice?