Flora

 In 1944, fourteen-year-old Flora Klein stood in a Nazi camp in Hungary as guards asked, “Who speaks German?” Many raised their hands, hoping it would help them survive—but they never returned. Flora kept her hand down. She understood that sometimes silence means survival. She lost her family, her home, and her childhood, but her strength and instincts kept her alive through the darkest time in history.

After the war, Flora rebuilt her life in Jerusalem and later moved to New York with her young son, Chaim Witz. Life was hard—she worked many jobs for little money—but she never gave up. Her dream was simple: to give her son a better life than she had. Chaim watched his mother’s quiet courage and learned what real strength meant. He promised to make her proud. The world would later know him as Gene Simmons, the powerful frontman of the rock band KISS.

Flora never looked for fame, but her spirit shaped her son’s success. Gene always said, “Everything I am is because of my mother.” He honored her by caring for her, sharing her story, and living loudly in the freedom she fought for. Flora Klein passed away in 2018 at age 93, having turned her pain into strength and survival into legacy. Her silence once saved her life—and her strength changed music history forever.