One Survivor Remembers

Who can best describe the dangers of prejudice and hatred? Who can teach future generations not to repeat the horrors and crimes of the past?

Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein, and Morris Dees, an Alabama Civil Rights activist, have both dedicated their lives to teaching tolerance, and to ending hatred, bigotry and racism. Join us on March 20th, when these two internationally acclaimed figures speak together for the very first time. Hosted by Dan Gottlieb of WHYY 91 FM's Voices in the Family, Weissmann Klein and Dees will share their life lessons, lessons they hope to pass on to future generations.

RSVP online or call (215) 351-0511

Gerda Weissmann Klein was just fifteen years old when the Germans invaded her native Poland. She endured six years under the terror of the Nazi Regime, and survived three years in slave labor camps and the "Death March" from Germany to Czechoslovakia". She is the only member of her family who survived the Holocaust. She tells her riveting tale of suffering, survival, and hope in her book "All But My Life" which was later turned into an Oscar-winning HBO Documentary. She is also the author of six other books and a renowned international speaker. She is slated to address the United Nations on its International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on Friday, January 27, 2006.

The son of Alabama farmers, Morris Dees gave up a successful career in publishing in the late 1960's to take up controversial court cases. Together with another lawyer and a civil rights activist Dees founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971Dees' most famous cases have involved landmark damage awards that have driven several prominent Neo-Nazi groups into bankruptcy, effectively causing them to disband and re-organize under different names and different leaders. In 1981, Dees successfully sued the Ku Klux Klan and won a seven million dollar settlement. This was topped a decade later, when in 1991 he won a judgment of $12 million against White Aryan Resistance. He was also instrumental in the rewarding of a $6.5 million judgment against Aryan Nation in 2001, which splintered that group as well.

The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 as a small civil rights law firm. Today, the Center is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups. Located in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, the Center was founded by Morris Dees and Joe Levin, two local lawyers who shared a commitment to racial equality. Founded in 1991, the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance provides schools with free educational materials that promote respect for differences and appreciation of diversity in the classroom and beyond.

The Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation was formed in April 1998 to teach students about the importance of tolerance, respect and responsibility through character education and community service. Inspired by the Kleins' personal message of survival, acceptance and hope, students learn from the past and translate that understanding into positive action.