A Garden of Eden in Hell - Melissa Muller, Reinhard Piechocki (2007)Alice Herz-Sommer was a gifted pianist who grew up in Prague in a Jewish family. She was deported with her husband and son, to Theresiestadt Concentration Camp in 1942. Here she gave over a hundred concerts to fellow prisoners and to guards and SS officers and was able to save her son, one of only 130 children who survived out of the 15,000 sent to camp.
Emigrating to Israel and then London after the war, she continued practising, playing and teaching music. Aged 103 at the time of writing the book, she still lives in London.
An interesting story, but I am afraid I was a bit distracted in reading it, and felt it spent to long telling us about being a child in Prague and all the older sisters friends. Maybe my lack of understanding anything about classical music hindered my enjoyment too. 2/5
No comments:
Post a Comment