Author, Holocaust survivor to speak at YSU

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Gerda Weissman Klein, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, will talk about her experiences during the Holocaust after a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary film about her life, “One Survivor Remembers,” at 7 p.m. next Tuesday in the Chestnut Room in Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

The film will be shown as a part of the Youngstown Area Jewish Film Festival. This event is free.

For more than six decades, Klein has captivated audiences worldwide with her message of hope, inspiration, love and humanity.

In her speeches and nine books, Klein draws from her life experiences, from surviving the Holocaust and accepting an Oscar and Emmy for a documentary based on her life to her constant fight to promote tolerance, encourage community service and combat hunger.

Klein’s account of her experiences during the Holocaust is documented in her autobiography, “All But My Life,” which has been in print for 56 years published in 68 editions and used in high schools and colleges around the world. It is the basis for the Oscar-winning documentary “One Survivor Remembers.” In December 2012, the film was entered into the National Film Registry.

The story of Klein meeting and marrying Kurt Klein, the American soldier who liberated her, and their life together has been featured on numerous television shows. “The Hours After” is a collection of correspondence between Gerda and Kurt Klein after the war. The Kleins’ story also is portrayed in the film “Testimony,” a permanent exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

On Feb. 15, 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Gerda Klein, along with 14 others, the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor. Former President George H.W. Bush, musician Yo Yo Ma, businessman/philanthropist Warren Buffett, poet Maya Angelou and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell were among the others who received the award that day.