Gisella Perl was a successful Jewish gynaecologist in Romania during the 1930's and 1940's. In the year of 1944, she was taken to Auschwitz where she was known to treat women with kindness and compassion. Her job was to report all pregnancies to Dr. Josef Mengele, "The Angel of Death". Once the inhumane and horrible medical experiments given to pregnant women were uncovered, Perl vowed that there would never again be a pregnant woman in Auschwitz. Such experiments were torture and being thrown alive into the crematorium. She began to perform abortions in order to preserve as much life as possible.
Gerda Weissmann Klein was born on May 8th, 1924 in Bielsko, Poland. Her life suddenly changed when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. She is the only survivor of her family and group of friends.
In 1942, Gerda was separated from her father (who was murdered that following April in an extermination camp) and survived a selection where she was also separated from her mother (who was selected for death). Klein survived Bolkenhain, Márzdorf, Landeshut and Grünberg. At the end of the war, Gerda witnessed the death of her friend, Ilse, while on the 350-mile death march. She was only one of the 120 women who survived out of the original 4,000.
On May 7th, 1945, the surviving prisoners of the death march were liberated. One of the liberators was Lt. Kurt Klein. Lt. Klein could relate to the group of survivors he had just liberated because his own parents died in Auschwitz. Once anti-semetism began to escalate in pre-war Germany, Klein's parents sent their children to America, in the hope that they would have a better future. In 1942, he joined the U.S. Army which eventually led him to Gerda.
On June 18th, 1946, Kurt and Gerda Klein were married in Paris. After 54 years of marriage and three children, Kurt Klein passed in 2002. Gerda Weissmann Klein is now the author of a Holocaust memoir, "All But My Life", a humanitarian, a human rights activist, the founder of Citizenship Counts and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
Operation Valkyrie was a famous failed assassination attempt to claim Adolf Hitler's life. On July 20th, 1944, Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, Major General Henning von Trascow, and Friedrich Olbricht attempted to take full control of all German cities, disarm he SS and arrest and contain all major Nazi leaders such as Himmler, Goebbels, and Speer once Hitler was assassinated by the explosion of a bomb. Although the assassination attempt was a major fail, Stauffenberg, Trascow and Olbricht did not give up their lives in vain.
Here are links for further research:
1. Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/julyplot.html
2. Yad Vashem: http://www.yadvashem.org/
3. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org
Father Pierre Marie-Benoît was a humanitarian who helped arrange hiding places and smuggle Jews into Switzerland and Spain. Father Benoît had connections with the Jewish underground and several other religious organizations who helped print false documentation for Jewish individuals and families. In November of 1942, Benoît convinced the Italian commissioner of Jewish affairs, Guido Lospinoso, to not act against the 30,000 Jewish individuals and families who lived in Nice and the surrounding areas.
On April 26th, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Father Pierre Marie-Benoît as Rightous Among the Nations.
The Edelweiss Pirates were a small, loosely-organized group of German youth to old for the Hitler Youth and still young enough to avoid forced conscription into the military. The movement originated in Western Germany in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth and they sang anti-Nazi songs, assisted military deserters, and collected pamphlets dropped by the Allies. This was their popular slogan: " Eternal War on the Hitler Youth". This was a popular song that a sub group sang:
On May 19th, 1909, Nicholas Winton was born. In December of 1938, Winton was asked to visit a refugee camp, filled to capacity with mostly Jewish and political opponent refugees. Due to the rise of ant-semetism, such as Kristallnacht, Winton decided to organize a Kindertransport of his own. He organized a group of individuals to help set-up his operation, he opened an office in Prague, fundraised in Britain and found foster families to care for the refugee children. By day he worked at the stock-exchange and by night, Winston dedicated his time to his rescue efforts.
There were several Kindertransports organized by Nicholas Winton. Between March and August of 1939, a known seven transports took place. As of today, Nicholas Winton is known for saving the lives of 669 children.
Gad Beck grew up in Berlin to an underprivileged family. Being 10 when the Nazis rose to power, he experienced ant-semetism first hand while attending a German school. Due to his "mixed' familiar background, his mother having converted to Judaism, Beck was spared from being deported East.
While in Berlin, he was involved in the underground. Being homosexual and Jewish, Beck had multiple connections to several circles of people and resistance groups. He assisted Jews in escaping to Switzerland and also provided food and hiding places. He also held a leading role in the Chug Chaluzi Jewish resistance group. He arranged safe houses, assisted Jews in escaping and delivered money.
In 1942, Beck attempted to save the life of his Jewish lover, Manfred Lewin. He borrowed a Hitler Youth uniform and met Lewin at the detention center where he was being held. Manfred decided that he could not leave his family. He was deported to Auschwitz, where he perished.
In March of 1945, Gad was betrayed and arrested. He was liberated on April 24th, 1945. After the war, Gad Beck immigrated to Palestine while helping other to immigrate at the same time. He fought in the war which led to the creation and establishment of Israel. After establishing a life in Israel, Beck returned to Germany where he became an LGBTQ activist and the Director of the Berlin's Jewish Adult Education Center.
Gad Beck believed it was his mission to rebuild the communities of individuals that the Nazis spent years trying to make disappear. At the age of 88, Beck died in 2012. He was the last, known homosexual and Jewish Holocaust survivor.
