|
Charlotte Gerson's Work
Charlotte’s long and varied life began in the small town of Bielefeld, in
Wesfalia, where her parents and two older sisters lived peacefully following the
upheavals of the First World War. Her father’s research and discoveries in the
field of nutrition only touched the pretty little girl occasionally when,
red-cheeked and smudged from the sandbox, she would be called in to demonstrate
to skeptical patients that yes, one could be healthy without eating sausages and
cream cakes.
When later contact with her father’s tuberculosis patients infected her with a
bone condition, she healed on his great method and never again suffered from a
life-threatening illness.
It is little understood outside her family the stress and fear experienced by
Charlotte and her sisters with the onset of Nazism and the family’s flight
across Europe: first from Berlin to Vienna, then Vienna to Paris, then to London
and finally across the Atlantic to the United States. One can follow these
movements on a map but how did they affect an eleven-year-old child who had to
change schools, learn two new languages and sit with second graders in chairs
not built for anyone older. Furniture in storage, father seeking possible havens
for his family and recognition for his work, her mother bearing the full burden
of moving house and educating her daughters.
Charlotte often tells how the teacher announced her departure from London on the
day of King Edward VII’s abdication. A special assembly was called in her school
and it was solemnly announced that the King had abdicated. “And today, Charlotte
Gerson is also leaving us.”
When at last the family settled in New York, Charlotte attended high school and
subsequently Smith College.
She married young, a handsome photographer, Irwin Straus, whose family had also
fled the Holocaust, and quickly became a soldier’s bride, when, in 1941, a day
after Pearl Harbor, Irwin enlisted. She followed him through basic training
camps and actually had her first experience in public speaking before a group of
army wives, recounting her trials and the situation in Hitler’s Europe.
Howard was born in 1943, while his father was enlisted, and Margaret (Peggy),
named after Max Gerson’s wife, in 1947. In the postwar period, Charlotte and her
husband built a business together, but she always studied the application of her
father’s therapy in patients, spending weekends visiting his clinic in upstate
New York, making rounds with him, and assisting him in many ways. She loved to
read the medical journals she found in his office. This was always her real
passion.
Dr. Gerson died just one year after the publication of A Cancer Therapy –
Results of 50 Cases. Charlotte continued to publish his book, and as it came
into the hands of organizations dedicated to exploring natural therapies, she
was asked to attend health conventions as a speaker. Her lectures became famous,
her passion and conviction able to convey to a non medical audience the logic
and power of her father’s wonderful work.
In the mid seventies Charlotte and Norman Fritz founded the Gerson Institute. At
first they were without help and wrote, printed, and stuffed into envelopes all
the announcements, testimonials and appeals, travelled to conventions, printed
and sold Dr. Gerson’s books and talked incessantly to patients and practitioners
on the telephone.
Charlotte struggled to organize clinical situations together with doctors,
starting in Los Angeles, then in South Bend, Indiana, and finally in various
locations in Mexico. Her fame as a speaker grew and she was a familiar figure at
many health conventions such as:
The Cancer Control Society
The National Health Federation
The Modern Manna Group
The Consumer Health Organization of Canada
and many private organizations. For over 30 years, Charlotte has trained
physicians in the Gerson Therapy at the Mexican Hospitals. She went there every
day at the beginning and then twice a week, tirelessly giving of her vitality
and energy to frightened, doubtful patients, and achieving incredible results.
In 1996 Charlotte retired as President of the Gerson Institute and limited her
activity to private consulting, teaching, and lecturing. She has given a lecture
to a “Natural Health” group at the British Parliament; at the Wolfgang Goethe
University in Frankfurt, and the London University, various Irish University
locations, naturopathic colleges and in Italy.
Charlotte wrote ceaselessly on many subjects related to the Gerson Therapy,
general health, and recovered patients. She regularly contributed to the Gerson
Institute Healing Newsletter and her articles have been reprinted in magazines
worldwide.
In 2002, she published a series of nine “booklets” responding to the public’s
request for “Patients recovered from their kind of cancer”. These booklets each
contain some 35 pages, with the titles of Healing [name of cancer] the Gerson
Way. They are very popular since each of them shows some dozen recovered
patients of that cancer.
Charlotte participated in three excellent DVD’s by Stephen Kroschel all
describing the Gerson Therapy and showing recovered patients. The first one,
“The Gerson Miracle” won first prize at the Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2004.
Then came, “Dying to Have Known” which describes the attackers’ claims and
counters them with Surgeons and Professors showing cured, formerly terminal,
patients treated with the Gerson Therapy and recovered. The last film was "The
Beautiful Truth" (2008).
Charlotte’s book, Healing the Gerson Way – Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic
Diseases, written in cooperation with Beata Bishop, came out in August, 2007. It
is new, in excellent style, eminently readable and usable for self-healing. It
also has almost 100 pages of Gerson recipes. The book has been translated into
12 languages, with four more translations slated to be published in 2015.
She has also published Healing Diabetes the Gerson Way, Healing Arthritis the
Gerson Way and Healing High Blood Pressure the Gerson Way.
Right until she reached 92, Charlotte visited patients once a week at the clinic
in Mexico and her lectures and question times there were greeted with enthusiasm
by everyone, her wonderful energy still able to inspire them to hope and heal.
Charlotte is now fully retired. After a second serious fall in the summer of
2014, she never recovered the ability to walk unassisted, and though she is
without pain, and in good spirits, she is no longer able to do the work she
loved. She still reads letters and enjoys hearing of people who are bravely
facing the trials and satisfactions of Healing the Gerson Way.
Charlotte Needs Your Help
****NEW UPDATES - SEE BELOW****
Growing up in the Gerson household, Charlotte was raised with the principles of
the Gerson Therapy. Daily juices and eating organic vegetables was a normal part
of her life. No wonder Charlotte was always in exceptional vibrant health, full
of energy and quick to give a lecture - even in a waiting room.
Things have changed since her fall in 2013 when she tripped over a cord. She had
a difficult recovery from a fractured pelvis and settled into a well deserved
retirement at the same time.
Here is her last interview with Jonathan Landsman from September 2013 where she
even shows off a toe-touch as a testimony of her astounding healing.
Please
enjoy this video.
© Jonathan Landsman. Thank you for the permission.
This might be one of her last interviews. Since her second fall, she likely
won’t be doing any new interviews anytime soon.
While she was still healing from her first fall, Charlotte unfortunately
suffered a second fall in June 2014. This time she broke her femur. She had to
be hospitalized, caught a hospital infection and was forced to a long stay in a
nursing home.
Everybody who knows Charlotte can imagine how dreadful this was for her.
In the meantime, her home needed to get set up properly with all the equipment,
ramps, special bed, special chair and much more. It took a lot of time, money
and effort and all she wanted was to come back home to her juices and her good
Gerson food.
Today, at age 93, Charlotte has no pain, she is cheerful and is surrounded by
lovely young people who care for her around the clock since her family can not
be with her all the time.
We do not expect changes in this situation, her health is basically all right,
it is just so much harder to recover from this type of injury at her age.
Charlotte is indeed feeling the effects of her advancing age. She will require
assistance for the rest of her life.
We want Charlotte to be able to stay in her home, with her good food and her
good assistance.
With all this being said, this kind of home care is not cheap and money is
getting thin.
That is why we created this webpage and started The Charlotte Gerson Fundraiser.
We kindly ask you to help Charlotte by giving to the Charlotte Gerson Fundraiser
to help keep her in her home with the love and care she deserves.
THANK YOU!
Howard & Margaret Straus
(Charlotte's son and daughter)
****Update from 4/5/15****
Many of you have asked us to keep you up to date on Charlotte’s progress, or
give you news from her home and helpers. Now that I (Margaret) am back home in
Italy that is of course more difficult, but when they have time her caregivers
have promised to send photos. I do know that Thursday a few people from the
Gerson Institute came over with balloons and an enormous stack of birthday cards
for her to enjoy. She read them with pleasure. Jane, our creative and loving
helper, brought over a birdfeeder and Steve hung it outside the window where her
chair is placed and she spends most of the day and night. It is a wonderful
feeder with perches of different sizes for different sized birds and now, after
about 2 or 3 days, her neighbourhood feathered friends have finally discovered
it and are entertaining Charlotte with their antics. About 5 feet away, we
already had a hummingbird feeder and those lovely little creatures have been
paying steady visits to drink from it. We wonder with a little sadness what has
happened to the cotton-tailed bunnies that regularly used to hang around her
lawn. She misses them and we worry that some coyote may have found them. I took
this in her yard a couple of years ago, so it is not a vain thought.
Naturally you are all interested in how the fundraiser is going. The
contributions have been flowing in and we are moved and grateful. We feel that
we are now covered for 3 months of Charlotte’s care and this has given us
tremendous peace of mind. We cannot thank you enough. Nonetheless, we have to go
on. It is the continuing need, not being able to skip a week that drives us.
So please, help us secure her ongoing care. Her overall condition is pretty much
unchanged. We are waiting for some test results for ailments related to sitting
and lying down so much. Hopefully good physiotherapy will be enough.
Thank you again, those who have helped Charlotte, and anyone who may be able to
give a small monthly donation, that is so appreciated!!
***Update from 4/10/15***
The Gerson Institute was so kind to go through their archive and started
digitalizing old VHS tapes of Charlotte. We are so happy to show you these NEVER
SEEN BEFORE videos of Charlotte. They are a collection of short clips - one on
the topic of "You Can Not Heal Selectively" and the other one on "What is
Cancer".
The videos are not published yet. As a little "Thank You" to all supporters of
this fundraiser we invite you to watch these videos before they will go public
on the Gerson Institute you tube channel sometime later.
We hope you enjoy them!
|
You Can Not Heal Selectively
Gerson Institute Archive |
|
What is Cancer ?
Gerson Institute Archive |
Thank you for your generosity!
We really appreciate it!
Here are some very recent(2015) pictures of Charlotte with her daughter Margaret, her
helper Jane, Steve and Brandon.
***Update from 11/26/15***
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! For all you have been giving so graciously to help keep
CHARLOTTE GERSON in her own home with such amazing Gerson Helpers: Brandon,
Stephen and Jane!!!
Charlotte's health has improved on the Gerson -Therapy and the love and care she
is receiving.
At almost 94, she still has her sense of humor and continues to be a blessing to
us all.
Unfortunately, even with the improvements she has made, Charlotte will forever
need ongoing care around the clock.
Many people think, because Charlotte is famous, that she has a great income.
Unfortunately that is far from being true!
The Gerson Institute is a non profit organization and it does not belong to her
or contribute to her care.
The Gerson Clinic belongs to the doctors and Howard Straus (her son) is her
publisher, but is struggling with various problems.
Her only income is social security and that is about a fifth of her expenses.
Her savings - and the savings of her family - have been dried up by a year of
these expenses.
Please help us to secure Charlotte's ongoing care. Her overall condition is
pretty much unchanged and she will need ongoing care for the rest of her life.
Thank you again, those who have helped Charlotte, and anyone who may be able to
give a small monthly donation, that is so appreciated!!
***Update from 3/25/16***
March 27, 2016 is my mother, Charlotte Gerson’s 94th birthday. I think by now
most of you will have seen our appeal for her, but may wish to show your special
gratitude with a gift for her birthday. Everyone who belongs to this group, who
has been helped and is helping others with the Gerson Therapy, owes an
incredible debt to Charlotte, without whom the therapy might have faded into
oblivion.
So this year, instead of just sending a card, please enclose a check, whatever
you can afford, to help us keep Charlotte well looked after and happy in her own
home in these her last years. Charlotte is anxious to help in her own care so
your gifts will be doubly welcome. The piece below presents a little known side
of Charlotte’s activities, but something we should never forget.
Thank you and blessings to you all.
Honoring Charlotte’s Lifetime of Healing
by Margaret Straus
I think all the wonderful things that could be said about you, Mother, already
have been. Your beauty, intelligence, dedication, courage, and loving humanity
have been celebrated on many occasions when the countless patients you have
helped have flocked to your side. So I thought I would tell another story, which
I find equally inspiring. How many of your admirers, seeing how you flourished
enviably in full activity past 90, with a marvelous institution to support and
continue your work, really know the price you have paid over the years?
Willingly and with passion, yes, but in struggles that few would have been able
to resist. Having once decided not to let your father’s work die with him, you
took on an immense and initially lonely task. You lectured, hauled boxes of
books and papers around the country, struggling to round out your medical
knowledge while at the same time having to train licensed professionals. At
least one clinic opened in an area where bitter weather made delivery of
supplies, especially of calves’ liver, a constant battle. You juiced and cooked
for patients when help evaporated, spent hours on the phone encouraging the
desperate and placating their fears. Risking, always risking persecution by the
cynical powers of greed, yet carrying on with infinite faith. All the while you
maintained your health by following your father’s precepts, for which our
gratitude as his heirs will never end. Your life inspires us by showing how
anything truly worth achieving takes constant and determined effort, without
watching the clock or moaning about never getting a holiday. There are no short
cuts, no magic, much less magic bullets. There is a moral imperative.
With love and endless gratitude.
Margaret
***Update from 6/6/16***
Dear Friends,
we are asking you to make one final effort to help Charlotte.
In August she and her family have decided that she will go to live next door to
her daughter Margaret Straus on beautiful Lake Como in Italy. The expenses will
be enormous until she is settled: Business Class flight for herself and her
loving caregiver Brandon, medical equipment and a recliner where she spends most
of her days and sleeps at night, enormous expenses to pack and prepare her house
for viewing and sale (there are big basic repairs that need doing), the last
months of her helpers' and caregivers’ expenses.
This will probably run over $50,000.
Please help us meet these final expenses to bring Charlotte to the happiness of
spending her last years with her beloved daughter. Margaret has found a lovely
caregiver for her and her apartment will be comfortable and have a view of the
Lake and the Alps of Switzerland.
This woman who has saved thousands of lives and whose legacy of tireless
devotion continues to save lives, deserves all of our gratitude and one last
show of generosity on the part of her followers.
Please do everything you can.
Thank you!
|
