All But My Life is the true story of the years Gerda Weissmann Klein endured after the invasion of her hometown, Bielitz, Poland. Written by the heroine herself, Gerda Weissmann Klein relates the harrowing tale of her life as a young Jewish girl in Nazi Poland who loses her family, friends, and home and is thrown in to a new life filled with terror and uncertainty. Although Gerda has to endure horrors no one living a normal life could even imagine, the strength of her spirit to survive is what ultimately saves her. The readers know the fears and thoughts she feels before being driven from her home along with her family members to labor camps around Europe. Gerda has much trepidation but is careful not to allow her parents to know of her concerns as she does not want anything to dampen what little spirit they may have left.