This is one of the first Holocaust survival stories that I read. It is by far one that has stayed with me in the most detail.

What a strong girl Gerda is. she was told to never give up her boots and in the end it is one thing that saved her life after marching in a blizzard half frozen to death. How she survived is nothing short of a miracle.

Reading this when you are in a hard time reminds you that you do have the inner strength to survive. If she can do that then I can face my problems. It is quite graphic and tells the truth of really happened in the holocaust.

I'm not going to give the story away I'm just going to say you will cry and rejoyce in this story. It will touch you to core of your very being.

I must read for EVERYONE!

I have read many of the holocaust books out there but this is the one I pass on to friends to read. Especially moving is the liberation of the prisoners at the end of the book. I wish all schools made this mandatory reading. What a way to learn history! This author is quite an incredible woman.

This is one of the first Holocaust survival stories that I read. It is by far one that has stayed with me in the most detail.

I'm not going to give the story away I'm just going to say you will cry and rejoyce in this story. It will touch you to core of your very being.

I must read for EVERYONE!

This book was gripping and I could not put it down until I finished it. It's so hard to believe the hardships so many endured for being Jewish. A must read. Beautifully written with rich detail.

I read this book a long time ago and just got done listening to the book on tape for the second time. It is the most powerful representation of the Holocaust I have found. Please read this book if you want to learn about the Holocaust from a gifted author and survivor.

Despite the horrors around her, and fellow prisoners dying and becoming mentally unbalanced every day, young Gerda Weissman managed to survive several Nazi camps from the late 1930s through the grisly end of World War II.

Imagine being a teenager, wrenched away from your beloved parents, older brother and home -- and never seeing any of them ever again. It would be enough to make anyone unstable, not to mention bitter. Yet somehow, Gerda emerges from her horrifying ordeal stronger than she began. As her body heals in a hospital run by the Allies during the spring of 1945, Gerda begins a relationship with Kurt Klein -- a young soldier who urges her to tell her story.

Now an elderly woman living in Arizona, Gerda Weissman Klein is able to see just how far she's come from the young Jewish girl living a priviledged life in Poland. Yet at the same time, her writing style allows readers to see clearly just how that same persona has managed to live such a rich, eventful life to the fullest all of these years.

I've read many Holocaust memoirs, though I must say that Gerda's story is beautifully and distinctly told.

Every book that I've read on the holocaust contains descriptions of the horrors that man are capable of exerting on fellow man. Simultaneously, each one also differs in very interesting ways that make it unique. I appreciate Gerda Klein's simple writing, and how well she expresses her feelings and experiences.
Books like "All But My Life" help keep the past (however dark) alive. I think that human beings have a lot to learn from such memoirs - politics, society, and human nature - it's all there. Highly recommended.

It's been several years since I last read 'All But My Life' but it's easily the best Holocaust survivor account I've ever read. This was on the curriculum of a class I took on the Holocaust but I was grateful they made me read it. You should be warned this becomes a very vivid, painful story, and I found it difficult in places to stop crying. It's a good illustration of why the Holocaust was so evil, and such a waste. Why did talented, loving people like this have to die? I have also read 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, which was excellent, but nothing I have read has affected me like 'All But My Life'.

This is the amazing and heart-wrenching story of one brave and spirited young Jewish woman's survival of the Holocaust including her imprisonment in slave labor camps and a three month forced march from Germany to Czechoslovakia.

Many of the first hand details of her horrifying experience are unfathomable and difficult to read and absorb; the starvation, physical abuse, murder, death and suffering of so many.

But what is amazing is Gerda's interminable spirit and her dedication to her convictions. She could have done things that may have alleviated some of her suffering but she never compromised her values. There were times it seemed that her choices might bring her to her death.

Also amazing was the fact that she continued to have hope. There were moments when she felt she had lost all hope, but even then she continued to honor the promise she made to her father. At the end, during the death march, she hoped for liberation and continued to encourage her friends to survive. The death march started with 2,000 young women and ended with only 120 survivors. Every morning she would wake to see many who had died during the night.

I recently read The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews and Built a Village in the Forest and The Net of Dreams: A Family's Search for a Rightful Place both are interesting perspectives but this book has an intensity from the first hand experience that they do not.

I read The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War's Aftermath prior to reading All But My Life and I'm glad that I did. Knowing the end of the story made reading her experience through the horror of the Holocaust a little bit easier but even so this was a difficult book to read.

It made me wonder how Gerda and those other 120 women survived the death march? How did they? Why did they? How were they able to be so strong?And how did Gerda's father have the forethought to make her wear her ski boots when she left home (in June)? They certainly played a huge part in her survival.

An amazing story of survival.

I won't dismay Gerda's experience which was like thousands of others who survived the death camps in Europe. Not knowing her brother's fate which was likely death whether on the fields or in the camps is harrowing. I think it's wise that Gerda writes about the Holocaust as another voice in the camps much like Anne Frank and Simone Liebster and many others who have contributed to the history of the evil final solution. We will never really know the horrors firsthand and even secondhand. Survivors like Gerda are dying every day so it's important to know the history. It's also tragic to realize that Poland before the war had it's share of prejudice on both sides. By the end of the war that still haunts the countryside and the cities of Cracow and Warsaw, life was never the same in Poland again. After the war, communism was an improvement over the fascism that they lived with for six years. Imprisonment instead of murder was communism's answer for discord and disagreement. Gerda makes a point to give back to the world with her organization as well. She and her husband have a romance and marriage that some of us can only dream about. The scars of the Holocaust remains with Gerda but she does not let it define her. She has become a strong, Jewish American woman, a survivor who seeks to help others whether they are Jewish or not. The worst part about surviving is the guilt that one feels for being the survivor. A survivor must feel it's their duty to thrive and succeed in order to justify their fate. Gerda's story will be told for decades to come as well as the others. We can't forget the Holocaust or write it off as a Jewish experience because it's not just one group. The Holocaust proved that evil can destroy innocent men, women, and children and even haunt those who were behind the massacres in the fields, the forests, and the death camps. We must ask ourselves where and when is it happening? Not when will it happen again because that would mean that mankind has learned it's lesson. We don't have to wait because it's happening in Africa. It's happened in Kosovo and in other parts of the world.

I find the strength of Gerda Weissmann to be truly inspirational. This is a wonderful book that tells the real life story of a young Jewish girl who survives the Holocaust. I am a 7th grade social studies teacher and I use this book with my students. After reading this book I feel that Gerda is an absolute hero. I have since learned that she has devoted her life to helping others through speaking about her experiences, helping to feed the hungry, and speaking with others who have survived tradegy. In a society where we put people on pillars and give them popularity and monetary success for much, much, much less, Gerda is a true hero who deserves all peoples attention and gratutity.

This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I bought this book while visiting the holocaust museum in Washinton DC when I was about 13. I have read it several times. It is so moving and powerful. I think it would be very good to use in the classroom. Even now, 9 years later, I cannot forget the images that Gerda painted into my head. Truely amazing.

I have read many books on World War II and the Holocaust. Growing up with the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, I remember her Mom being a rather serious person and never smiling, but her daughter, my friend, was an extremely happy child and adult. After reading Gerda Weismann Klein's most poignant book, I have to say it is the best I have read in survivor stories. It made me wonder what my friend's mother went through in her own life during the Holocaust as she had numbers tattoed on her arm Despite loss beyond comprehension to most of us, Gerda truly was left with only her life. I fully recommend you read this book if you never read any other Holocaust book. It was the one that has stayed with me and will stay with me my whole life. Thank you Gerda for sharing your story with us. I am so sorry you and the other survivors had to go through such an ordeal. All the Holocaust stories are a testiment to man's inhumanity to man, but this book is so beautifully written and so heartbreaking, you feel as though you are going through it with her. Many tears were shed reading this book.

This was the second book I read in my Holocaust Literature class and it's excellent! Gerda describes everything perferctly, taking you back in time. She remembers both the good and the bad with extreme clarity, something I wish I had (I have a horrible memory). The actual story being told is extremely sad though and I almost feel that it's wrong to tell of something like Gerda went through and saw, but the courage and strength she has gained in life is unbelievable (an epiloge is included in the back showing this). Gerda is such an inspiration and I hope that there are more people like her in the future. If I could only bring 1 holocaust book with me to a desert island, this would be it! Highly recommended.

I read this book for an eigth grade English project last year. It is truely touching and amazing to think how the world once was, and still is in some areas of the world. When I read this book, I could hardly put it down. Even now, it makes me remember the pain the war caused. This is a good read that speaks the truth.

It may have been serendipity that the author survived the German labor camps. This book, however, is about more than serendipity--it's about character, and the ability of a survivor to heal and find beauty, purpose and love in the aftermath of great personal tragedy.

Before reading this book I had visited Dachau, a labor camp in the south of Germany. I was shocked and appalled by what I heard went on in this camp, but until I read this book I never fully understood what it would be like for someone my own age living in a camp such as this one. The things she had to deal with just aren't what a girl my age should be dealing with, but obviously Gerda had no choice. I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to watch my family be torn apart, or watch my friends slowly drop like flies as the Germans worked them to the bone. Honestly, no one can relate to what these people went through.

Now, after reading this book, I realized how I take many things for granted, like food that my parents put on my plate every night. I mean I never even thought of a life without it, and even my family itself. What would I do without them, they give me so much support in my everyday life. It is unfortunate that Gerda wasn't able to be with them during such a rough time like the holocaust. She may have had her good friends from Bielitz but that could never fill the "holes" of missing family members.

I would recommend this book to anyone, because we can all learn a lesson for this woman. You will laugh and cry, and from the first page you will be drawn in by her descriptions and all her experiences during the holocaust that you will just have to read it cover to cover.

When I started out reading the book, I thought it would be another amazing book about the struggles and hardships of the Holocaust, I was extremely wrong, it was way more than that! Gerda Weissmann Klein takes you through every night, every tear that was shed and every breath that was taken in her journey of survival with her family.
Gerda went through, along with thousands of others, the fear and desperation that millions of others couldn't even fathom in a life time. She has recreated the scenes from her house; the burned down church and the Nazis marching down the street as if you were right by her side.
The part that I loved the most about the book was the entire idea of getting truly in touch with the family. You feel for each and every one of them, you heart reaches out to them in hope you ease their pain; and the surreal attraction is, is that you finish the book and you feel like apart of you just ended with it.
I recommend this book to every one that wants to find the true meaning of love, and triumph. This book has changed my life and I know it will change many others!

I read this book in the mid 1980s when I was in business school in chicago. I remember not being able to put the book down. Through some amazing luck and incredible inner strength Gerda was able to survive against the slimmest of hopes against the greatest of evils. I've read about 200 books on the holocaust and this ranks on the top 15. I was so moved after reading her story that I looked her phone number up and called her and thanked her for sharing her story. After reading this book you'll feel like giving the Klein's a huge hug!

Gerda is such a beautiful writer. She has been able to express such vivid detail, bringing to life all the people who touched her life for the reader to fully see, experience, know. Gerda managed to write a book in her new language that easily competes with anyone whose native tongue is English. I was mesmorized reading about her life. I wish to thank her for sharing this memoir, so painful, so unbelievable, so terribly sad and happy at times too, to her readers. She has done a great service to the lives that were lost to make their lives known; their lives and personalities will always be with me now. My mother is also a survivor. This book is a literary triumph for any author. Well Done Gerda! It would be an honor to meet this great courageous survivor. Thank you for this book. This is the best Holocaust survivor book I have ever read.

This was one of my favorite memoirs I have read. Gerda shows what it is to be strong. I fully reccommend this book. It made me cry it made me laugh. I have never felt so captured by a book since Angela's Ashes or Anne Frank's Diary. It is a true tale of strength. This is a accuarte account of how the nazis were and also how letting go of friends and family either to death or being seperated was normal.

I HAVE HAD THE HONOR AND PRIVALEDGE TO HAVE MET THIS WOMAN AND SPEND TIME WITH HER. I READ THIS BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME WHEN I WAS FOURTEEN AND HAVE SINCE READ THIS BOOK ALMOST EVERY YEAR. THIS BIOGRAPHY SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. INSIDE THE BOOK THERE ARE SOME PHOTOS, HER ONLY PHOTOS OF HER FAMILY THAT SHE KEPT HIDDEN INSIDE HER WINTER BOOTS THAT HER FATHER FORCED HER TO WEAR EVEN IN THE SUMMER. IF YOU GET A CHANCE TO HEAR THIS WOMAN SPEAK, IT IS MUST, SHE WILL HAS A WAY OF SPEAKING AND WRITING THAT WILL LEAVE YOU SPEECHLESS. I HAVE BEEN TO MANY SPEAKERS BEFORE AND HAVE READ COUNTLESS MEMOIRS ON THE SUBJECT, BUT SHE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS MADE ME CRY. THE WAY SHE CAPTURES HER AUDIENCE IS MESMORIZIING AND IT WILL LEAVE YOU WANTING TO KNOW MORE. GERDA'S STORY ALSO WON AN ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FEATURE. THIS IS A MUST READ. I READ IT IN LESS THAN A WEEK.

I recently had an opportunity to hear Gerda Weissman Klein speak of her experiences as a Holocaust survivor. You may remember Ms. Klein from the HBO Film based upon her startling story, which won an Academy Award. As a pampered, fifteen year-old Jewish girl in 1939, her idyllic family life came to an abrupt halt when the Nazis rolled into their small Polish town.

For a short period of time, her family was permitted to remain in their house, albeit in the basement. Over time, her family unravelled, shipped off one at a time to the death camps. Her beloved brother, Arthur. Her father. Her mother. All disappeared, never to be seen again. By 1942, she began her journey through a series of increasingly harsh slave-labor camps, using an ability to speak German and a quickly acquired expertise on garment looms. Only through a series of fortuitous coincidences, sacrifices of friends, and even a few benefactors among her captors, was she able to survive the factories.

By 1945, the Nazis were on the run and their prisoners were forced to move back into Germany. Stripped of all possessions except for some photographs tucked into her ski boots (which her father had presciently demanded she wear the summer she left home), she survived the 350-mile winter "death march". Only 120 of 2000 girls survived the forced march and Gerda herself was liberated by American soldiers only hours from death: she weighed 68 pounds when Lt. Kurt Klein, who was to become her husband, rolled into town.

There are few, if any, more compelling first-person stories of survival against all odds. Perhaps John Ransom's Andersonville Diary qualifies. But those who are unfamiliar with the concept of true evil would do well to read Gerda's unbelievable story of human spirit, and courage without measure.

I have just finished reading All But My Life. I was deeply moved by Gerda's strength, but I have also come to admire the language she uses in her memoir. It's amazing that Klein has survived so much and can still retell her tale with such vivid detail. One of the things I enjoyed about her writing was the way she told the reader what would happen to a certain character in the future. For example, when her father is leaving , she writes, "We watched until the train was out of sight. I never saw my father again". Although some readers may be disappointed because they know what will happen, I think that this makes a much stronger impact. The reader knows what Gerda doesn't yet know, and it makes her struggle that much more unforgettable. I would strongly recommend this book to everyone, it's a story that needs to be heard.

I picked up this book while visiting the Holocaust musuem in DC. I could not put this book down once I started reading it. What Gerda Weissmann Klein went through is amazing. I wonder if I could of been that strong. My heart broke for Gerda and the loss of her entire family. It makes me sick to know humans are able to do such terrible things to one another.