Throughout her two years in Theresienstadt, through the hunger and cold and death all around her, through the loss of her mother and husband, Alice Herz-Sommer was sustained by a Polish man who had died long before. His name was Frédéric Chopin.It was Chopin, Mrs. Herz-Sommer averred to the end of her long life, who […]
Alice Herz-Sommer, Who Found Peace in Chopin Amid Holocaust, Dies at 110 Read More »
When Alice Herz-Sommer played the piano at Theresienstadt her audience was enthralled.As she approached the end of Chopin’s difficult Revolutionary Etude, the piece’s mounting musical turbulence exploded.”Alice’s hands slid furiously over the keys, zig-zagging up and down from the heights to the lowest registers, with the final four chords ringing out, like so many shrieks
Alice Herz-Sommer dies at 110; thought to be oldest Holocaust survivor Read More »
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In her 110 years, Alice Herz-Sommer has been an accomplished concert pianist and teacher, a wife and mother — and a prisoner in Theresienstadt.Now she is the star of an Oscar-nominated documentary showing her indomitable optimism, cheerfulness and vitality despite all the upheavals and horrors she faced in the 20th century.“The