Gelebt, Erlebt, überlebt

Gertrude Pressburger's simple and poignant warning against a rhetoric of extremes has traveled the world. As the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust, she is now, at ninety years old, telling her story for the first time. Gertrude Pressburger was ten when Hitler invaded Austria. Although her Jewish family had been baptized as Catholics, they had to flee. The escape lasted almost six years, ending in Auschwitz in 1944. Gertrude survived the Holocaust—her parents and two younger brothers were murdered by the Nazis. For decades, Gertrude Pressburger remained silent. She was deeply disturbed when a prominent politician in Austria spoke in 2016 of an impending civil war. In a video message, she warned against a rhetoric of extremes. Encouraged by the fact that her truthful words were being heard, she decided to write her autobiography with a young journalist: "I did not come back to experience the same thing again.".