Mr. Gene Klein is a holocaust survivor and public speaker.
In the spring of 1944, when Gene was 16 years old, he and his family were deported from their home in Hungary to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. With an abundance of luck, a resilient mindset, and a powerful will to live, Gene managed to survive until his liberation by Soviet soldiers at the end of World War II.
For decades, Gene has fascinated and informed audiences with his remarkable experiences and a recounting of how he survived the bleak conditions of the death camps
As the number of eye-witnesses to the Nazi Holocaust dwindle in number, Gene Klein remains one of the most dynamic and energetic speakers for that generation of survivors. In the camps and separated from everyone he knew, teenager Klein quickly learned that social support, a positive outlook, and flexible thinking were key coping mechanisms. Gene saw his struggle for survival as his own personal battle against the Nazis. If he won, they lost but if he lost, they won—and that would be unthinkable. Knowing his father was already dead, Gene’s goal was to return home to his mother and two sisters. His formula was simple: to wake up every morning and to make it through the day.
