After the liberation of Bratislava, Gabriella enrolled in a professional school for women’s occupations, earning a diploma in fashion design and business in just three years.
She met Frantisek (Feri) Lederer at a family party, and married him in 1948. Soon after, the couple immigrated to Israel. In 1960, the family moved to Los Angeles, USA.
Gabriella spent years searching for her family’s savior, Karol Blanár, who escaped from communist Slovakia in 1948.
Finally, in 2001, she learned that he had immigrated to the United States and died in Ohio in 1980. She nominated him posthumously to be named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, and he was granted the title on October 10, 2004.
Gabriella has dedicated her life to Holocaust education as a docent and speaker at venues including the Holocaust Museum Los Angeles, the Museum of Tolerance as well as schools and youth camps. She wrote the memoir "Trauma, Memory, and the Art of Survival: A Holocaust Memoir." She also captured the horrors of the Holocaust in her art, creating expressive objects and sculptures in order to inspire hope for a more peaceful future.
Gabriella had to be hidden in so many different places as a child. What effect do you think this had on her?
Answering this question concludes the IWalk.