"I was the only one from my family who survived," Gerda Weissmann Klein recalled. "The only one of my dearest friends." In August 1939, 15-year-old Gerda returned from a summer vacation to her family home in Bielsko, Poland. She was to begin school within a few weeks. On September 1, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. The peaceful city of Bielsko was soon overtaken by the German army. Within weeks of the invasion, the able-bodied Jewish men of Bielsko, including Gerda's broth