All But My Life

I was at Barnes and Noble last week and I happend to ask about the HHS summer reading book. They had a bunch so I picked one up for the kids. I was surprised to see that it is an autobiography of Gerda Weissman Klein. She is a holocaust survivor and the book is about her time during the war and her time in the concentration camps. I thought, oh wow this is a great book for the kids to read. I decided to read it first as I'm always interested in history and especially autobiography's. As I was reading, I was trying to think of what my grandparents were doing during this time. Gerda was born in 1924 so she was younger than my Grandpa Metz and a bit older than my other grandparents but around the same age as all of them. Her strength and will to live and loyalty to her family which was torn apart by the Nazi's was truly amazing. The book is heartwrenching and warm at the same time. Gerda's faith in God was unshakeable and it is apparent that God had a true mission for her to complete here on earth. One of the things I found truly amazing in this story was her love for America. It made me sit and think how amazing our country is.  On liberation day, an American soldier  sees her and tells her that the war is over and she is now free. Gerda weighed 68lbs, she had lice on her and she was pale. She was in awe of this soldier at how he didn't care that she was a Jew he told her that he too was a Jew, he didn't care that she looked more like an animal than a girl and when he called her a lady she was in disbelief.  She thanked him for fighting for her freedom. Freedom, something we take for granted here. Our birth right, being an American, how truly blessed we are. Of course I've grown up being free, free to go to my church and free to travel but reading Gerda's story made me try to imagine not being free. Honestly, I could not imagine it and I'm not sure I would have had the will to go on as she did. She finally came to America and she said when she set foot on American soil she knew she was home, she loved America from the minute she was here and she was eager to be part of the mainstream. She wanted to learn English and she would spend hours in the grocery store teaching herself. I couldn't help but think about the illegal's in our country the ones who wave their home country's flag and who will not learn English. I am happy to share my country with other's but I believe they must realize that if they are here to live, it is necessary for them to be part of our culutre, not the other way around. I think having the high school kids read this book now is perfect timing. It is important to keep stories such as Gerda's alive so our children and future generations will not forget. So they will see the importance of fighting for freedom.