24 February 2014
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Pianist and oldest known Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer dies at 110
Prague born concert pianist Alice Herz-Sommer said that optimism and discipline helped her survive her two years in the Theresienstadt camp. She is known to have said that even if she was Jewish, Beethoven was her religion... ...
Prague born Alice Herz-Sommer said that optimism and discipline helped her survive her two years in the Theresienstadt camp. She is known to have said that even if she was Jewish, Beethoven was her religion.
The talented young pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, destined for a concert career, was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague at a time when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. She lived in the city's ghetto following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1943 she was sent to the Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp, along with her husband Leopold (also a musician) and son Raphael, where nearly 35,000 prisoners perished. Herz-Sommer managed to evade death by playing the piano in the camp, where staged concerts were allowed. She managed to keep a positive attitude with - something that we can barely comprehend.
Her husband was not as lucky. She never saw him again after he was transferred to Auschwitz in 1944. Many of her extended family and friends that she had grown up with also perished in the Holocaust.
To her very last days Herz-Sommer still believed in the good of the human being.
Read musicogolist (and Pianist contributor) Martin Anderson's interview with Herz-Sommer.
The talented young pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, destined for a concert career, was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague at a time when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. She lived in the city's ghetto following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1943 she was sent to the Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp, along with her husband Leopold (also a musician) and son Raphael, where nearly 35,000 prisoners perished. Herz-Sommer managed to evade death by playing the piano in the camp, where staged concerts were allowed. She managed to keep a positive attitude with - something that we can barely comprehend.
Her husband was not as lucky. She never saw him again after he was transferred to Auschwitz in 1944. Many of her extended family and friends that she had grown up with also perished in the Holocaust.
To her very last days Herz-Sommer still believed in the good of the human being.
Read musicogolist (and Pianist contributor) Martin Anderson's interview with Herz-Sommer.
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