History of Sorts

Flóra Klein was just a teenager when the world around her began to fall apart.

She was born to a modest Jewish family in Jánd, a small Hungarian village. Life was hard but filled with love—her parents kept traditions alive, the Sabbath was a sacred time, and music often floated from the kitchen as her mother prepared meals. But everything changed in 1944 when the Nazis occupied Hungary.

Flóra was only 14.

One spring morning, soldiers rounded up all the Jews in their village. Her father and brother were taken away first and sent to labor camps. She never saw them again.

Flóra and her mother were soon deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, packed into cattle cars with no food, no water, and no sense of where they were going. Days passed. When the doors opened, they were greeted by barking dogs, shouting guards, and the now-infamous railway platform where families were torn apart.

On the ramp, a Nazi officer motioned: left or right. Life or death. Flóra and her mother were separated in seconds—her mother was sent to the gas chambers, Flóra to forced labor.

She was alone. Fourteen. Terrified. Starving.

In Auschwitz, time lost all meaning. Days bled into nights, weeks into months. Flóra was assigned to sort through the belongings of murdered Jews. She saw hairbrushes with names carved in them, wedding rings, and children’s shoes—each item was a memory of someone who was now gone. The smell of burning flesh haunted the air. And yet, she survived.

She survived typhus, malnutrition, beatings, and bitter winters in thin rags. She survived because she refused to give up. Because she believed someone had to remember.

As the war drew to a close, Flóra was transferred to another camp—Ravensbrück, and then finally liberated by Allied forces in 1945. When they found her, she was 16 years old and weighed just 70 pounds.

Flóra was one of the few from her village who survived. She had lost almost everyone—her parents, her siblings, her childhood. But not her will.

After the war, she lived in a displaced persons camp and then made her way to Israel. There, she met another survivor, got married, and gave birth to a son. That boy was named Chaim Witz. Years later, he moved to America, changed his name to Gene Simmons, and became the co-founder of the rock band KISS.

But Gene always said his mother was the real rock star.

She never spoke much about the camps, but the trauma lived in her eyes. She worked hard, cleaned houses to support them, and made sure Gene understood the value of life, of freedom, and of survival. She watched her son grow famous with quiet pride, her past always tucked just beneath the surface.

Flóra Klein passed away in 2018 at the age of 93.

She survived one of history’s darkest chapters and lived to see her child thrive in freedom. Her story is not just one of pain but of power—the unbreakable strength of a mother who refused to be extinguished.

The song “Unholy” by KISS, featured on their 1992 album Revenge, presents Gene Simmons as the voice of evil—a being created by mankind. The title takes on an even deeper meaning when considering the unholy experiences his mother endured during the Holocaust.

Sources

https://mike1cohen.medium.com/flora-told-kiss-star-not-to-fear-failure-46cf0c382ce3

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/195210553/flora-klein

https://www.timesofisrael.com/kiss-frontman-simmons-learns-about-holocaust-survivor-mothers-ordeal/

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gene-simmoms-mom-dies-heartbroken/

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