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When my husband and I recently took a short getaway we went book shopping – surprise, surprise. Anyway, I found about five books on the clearance table that were also 50% off the clearance price. I was like a kid in a candy shop. This week I’m only going to talk about one of the books that I bought and have since read. It affected me so deeply. This week I read Alice’s Piano. At the time that the book was published Alice was the oldest living Holocaust survivor – I believe 108 years old. I have since learned that she died this year (interestingly enough to me on my husband’s birthday). She was 110 years old.

Even without having survived the Holocaust Alice Herz-Sommer had a fascinating life. She was born in 1903 in Prague and had a twin sister. They had very different outlooks. Alice was always an optimist while her sister leaned toward pessimism. She early discovered she had a love and talent for playing the piano. Even as a child she would practice the piano for hours.

By the time the Nazis started taking over Europe she had begun giving public concerts which was subsequently denied to her. She and her husband along with their young son began to live a more and more partitioned off life until they were sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt. Her son, Stephan, was one of the few children to survive this camp.

The Theresienstadt camp was kept as a “model” camp. One that was used to show the Red Cross that the Jews were being well-treated. They were allowed to have all kinds of cultural events, and Alice’s ability on the piano literally saved her life. Near the end of the war her husband was sent on to another camp and sadly succumbed to pneumonia.

When I read of Alice learning of her husband’s death months after the war, I had to close the book and walk away for a while. Although I had known this news was coming it was just so heartbreaking to me. I was so caught up with Alice. I cried and told God that although I love reading stories of how the human nature holds up under trials this was one trial I wished I did not have to read of. There just seemed to be something so private about this moment in Alice’s life. It touched me deeply.

Soon after, Alice and her son moved to Israel where she once again taught piano and gave public concerts. She outlived her son and many friends, lived through horrific trials in World War II and yet always kept her optimistic outlook on life.

A short award-winning documentary has been made about her life. Here is a link to a site selling a DVD of this documentary. The site also has a trailer from the documentary.

Here is a video of her playing the piano when she was nearly 108. Amazing. 

Have you ever read the story of someone’s life that affected you deeply and stirred in you a desire to live a better life?