Gerda Weissmann Klein has a heartfelt message for middle school-age children. “My dear young friends,” the 84-year-old Holocaust survivor says, “freedom is something incredible.” Weissman hopes to spread this message across Arizona with the help of Citizenship Counts (citizenshipcounts.org), a non-profit organization she founded in 2008.

Gerda Weissmann Klein with students from the Weldon Campus of Villa Montessori in Phoenix: Michael San Roman and Maggie Walsh, both of Phoenix. Photo by Evelyn Hendrix.

Klein was inspired to create a civics education program when she was asked to speak at a naturalization ceremony organized by the staff and students at Three Rivers Middle School in Cleves, Ohio. In planning the ceremony, the students learned what immigrants must do to become U.S. citizens. Klein was moved to see how students reacted to watching immigrants take the Oath of Allegiance. When she returned home to Phoenix, Klein enlisted the help of her granddaughter, Alysa Ullman, to produce the Citizenship Counts program, which gives students a personal view of an immigrant’s journey to U.S. citizenship.

Ullman’s 42-page curriculum, The Pathway to Citizenship, will be taught to seventh and eighth graders throughout Arizona beginning this fall. It also will be introduced in five major cities across the nation. By the year 2012, four million students in the U.S. will be involved in Citizenship Counts each year. “This is hands-on curriculum,” says Cheryl Walsh, acting CEO. “Students will participate in a real naturalization ceremony. This is not a simulation or mock ceremony.”

Citizenship Counts launched last fall as a pilot project at three Valley middle schools: Mission Montessori in Scottsdale and two Villa Montessori campuses in Phoenix. Students became familiar with the stories of individual immigrants and learned about their home countries. They followed them from the time of application to naturalization, and took the test immigrants must pass.

The program will culminate in a real naturalization ceremony, to be held at the federal courthouse in Phoenix during March. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who serves on the Citizenship Counts advisory board, will officiate. Students also will help the new citizens register to vote and apply for passports.

Klein represents the millions who come to America sincerely searching for freedom from oppression. She hopes the program will help dispel the exaggerated concept that immigrants are people who live in America illegally. “I love this country with a love that only one who has been homeless and hungry can know,” she says.

When Klein tells her survival story, children sit on the edges of their seats to hear it. She was close to their age, just 15, when she began life under Hitler’s rule. She lost her brother and parents, and was forced to live and work in concentration camps. Six years later, weighing only 68 pounds, she was liberated by an American soldier who later became her husband.

“I am grateful to be standing here, telling you what’s in my heart without the Gestapo coming to the door,” Klein says with conviction. She tells of her childhood friend, Ilsa, who was also in the concentration camp. One day, Ilsa found a single raspberry on the ground and put it in her pocket. At the end of the day, she reached through barbed wire to pluck a leaf. Ilsa placed the berry on the leaf and presented it to Klein.

“Imagine a world where your only possession is a bruised raspberry, and you gave it to a friend,” says Klein, who hopes to teach children that freedom must be shared.

“Freedom comes with responsibility,” she tells them. “You must grow up to be proud Americans and reach out to others.”

Would you pass the test?

Would your family members pass the naturalization test? You must answer six of 10 questions correctly. The actual test pulls from 100 possible questions about the history and government of the U.S. Flash cards can be downloaded at uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M_623_red.pdf. Here are some sample questions:

• What is the supreme law of the land?
• How many amendments does the constitution have?
• We elect a U.S. senator for how many years?
• Who is the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court now?
• There were 13 original states. Name three.
• When was the constitution written?
• Who was the president during World War I?
• Who was the president during World War II?