A Boring Evening at Home

The book is a glimpse into the life of Gerda Klein, and into the thoughts that have always vindicated her belief that the most treasured place on earth is home, and that the most beautiful and desirable aim for people is to spend "a boring evening" there with family.

"I have been in a place for six incredible years, where winning meant a crust of bread and to live another day. Since the blessed day of my liberation I have asked the question, Why am I here?...

In my mind’s eye I see those years and faces of those who never knew the magic of a boring evening at home. On their behalf I wish to thank you for honoring their memory, and you cannot do that in a better way than when you return to your homes tonight to realize that each of you who knows the joy of freedom is a winner. On their behalf I wish to thank you with all my heart."
-- Remarks by Gerda Weissmann Klein, accepting the Oscar for the documentary One Survivor Remembers, at the Sixty-eighth Annual Academy Awards in 1996

Gerda Weissmann Klein is a Holocaust survivor. She is the author of All But My Life, in print for 40 years in 40 editions, which has attained the status of a classic, The Hours After: Letters of Love and Longing in War’s Aftermath, The Blue Rose, Promise of a New Spring, and A Passion for Sharing, which earned its author the Valley Forge Freedom Award. In 1996, Klein was one of five women to receive the prestigious international Lion of Judah award in Jerusalem. More recently, she was featured on the cover of a McDougall-Littel educational textbook, The Americans, alongside such other notable figures as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, and Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf. Klein’s constant striving for the preservation of human rights and dignity has earned her five Doctorates of Humane Letters, along with countless other awards. Her recent television appearances include 60 Minutes, Oprah, and CBS Sunday Morning.