Gerda Weissman survived one of the most well known, horrifying events in history. She survived the Holocaust. She is a Jew and at the time Jews were being persecuted by the Nazis in Germany and other parts of Europe. Gerda went through many difficulties and while many didn’t make it she survived the hardships and told the story of what she went through. There were three elements that were essential to her survival. They are hope, luck, and courage. Without these very important elements Gerda would never have survived the Holocaust. While Gerda and all the other girls were marching from camp to camp she said, “The war was coming to an end, we thought, but so was our strength. We had now gone four days without food.” Page 186. This was when Gerda …show more content…
There were many occasions that her situation only seemed like it was going to get worse and she felt like giving up and committing suicide. It would have been easier for her to just end it there but she never gave up and stayed strong. It took a lot of courage not to do it and keep struggling through the hard times. This quote is from one of the moments where Gerda felt like giving up “That night I felt so close to death that I wanted it desperately. It seemed an easy solution, a quick way out. We had heard of a family who committed suicide together. I half-wished my parents had suggested it.” Page 32. This was the time when Gerda’s brother Arthur left and they hadn't heard from him. Her mother had gone slightly insane and repeated his name over and over again. Her brother was a big part of her life and she was devastated when she lost him. She feared for what happened to him. She imagined the ways he could have died and she was haunted by those thoughts. At the time she greatly felt like giving up and she would have saved herself a lot of suffering if she did. It took a lot of courage not to end her life at that moment and without that courage she wouldn't have made it through the