Our community mourns the loss of Gerda Seifer z"l

Our community mourns the loss of Gerda Seifer z”l

August 20, 1927 – November 25, 2022

Prolific author, dedicated activist, and quintessential woman of valor

Gerda was the embodiment of the woman of valor and an individual who shined with exceptional brilliance as a light not only unto the Jewish people, but to all who benefitted from her deeply important life.

While I did not know her for long, I will always remember bringing my thentwo-year-old daughter to be in Gerda’s presence as she told her story of survival, defiance, and ultimately perseverance in the face of unimaginable evil.

Gerda is no longer among us, but her dedication to the principle of “never again” produced a legacy that will live on for generations in those who hear her voice, and through her memory, adopt the mantle of responsibility to raise the tide of good for all.

Zach Benjamin Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Long Beach & Alpert JCC

I first met Gerda Seifer over 50 years ago when I was drafted to be in a play based on the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly. I was 10 or 11 years old and had not yet been fully taught about The Holocaust. I don’t remember the time of year, but I am guessing it was around Yom HaShoah. As I grew older and learned more about my own family’s survival, it became clear that Gerda was also part of the survivor community. Through the years, I got to know Gerda by attending different Survivor events and eventually by joining the Jewish Long Beach & Alpert JCC Yom HaShoah committee 15 years ago. During this time, I had the honor and pleasure of getting to know Gerda on a deeper and more intimate level. I had numerous opportunities to hear her speak and watch her facilitate discussions about the Holocaust. She was always kind and gentle in her speech. She facilitated with such passion and grace.

I have had the privilege of chairing the Yom HaShoah committee for the past 8 years. It always made me happy to have Gerda and Harold at the meetings. I recall early on at one of our post-event meetings, she told me “You’re doing an excellent job.” To have that feedback and validation meant the world to me. Gerda’s impact on the community and me personally is significant. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to listen to and learn from her. There will always be a special place in my heart for her.

Ken Schlesinger Chair of Jewish Long Beach’s Advocacy committee

Gerda was such a force of nature. Her story, which she recounted most recently in her book, The Girl in the Cellar, was one of pain, suffering, struggle, and survival.

For those unfamiliar with her, she was born in Przemysl, Poland. The Nazis came to her hometown when she was only twelve, but because they lived on the east side of the river, they left after two weeks. Instead, the Soviets occupied the town.

Since her parents ran a store, they feared arrest as class enemies and moved to Lwow, where her father worked in a textile factory. The Nazis reached there two weeks later and created a ghetto. Gerda survived the first Aktion when her father hid her with a woman who placed Gerda in a dark cellar for six weeks. When she returned, she found that her mother had been taken. When the second Aktion came, her father hid her with a woman who needed a servant. For two years, she was effectively this woman’s slave, but it kept her alive. After the war, she managed to get away from this woman and ultimately made it to England and then the US.

In Long Beach, she worked tirelessly for Holocaust education and was the longtime chair of the Jewish Long Beach & Alpert JCC Yom HaShoah Committee. Gerda herself spoke in schools for decades. She spoke in my classes at CSULB since I started teaching here in 2004. For my students, her talk was the most powerful moment in the semester.

She was a major figure in the CSULB Jewish Studies Program from the beginning. In 2010, she and her husband Harold approached us with the idea for an annual teacher training program on the Holocaust and provided the seed money for us to get it off the ground.

Since then, we’ve held twelve of them, training hundreds of teachers in area schools on how to teach the Holocaust. Gerda attended each annual workshop and spoke to the teachers every year. Through the teachers who’ve come to these workshops, we’ve reached tens of thousands of students, shaping the way they learn about the Holocaust.

Although we knew this day would come, that foreknowledge doesn’t make it any easier. She was irreplaceable.

Dr. Jeffrey Blutinger Director of Jewish Studies, California State University, Long Beach