Alice Herz-Sommer, who lived in London and was originally from Prague, was held in a concentration camp in Germany during the Second World War
Alice Herz-Sommer believed to be the oldest-known survivor of the Holocaust, died in London on Sunday morning at the age of 110 Photo: AP
The Telegraph [UK]
24 Feb 2014
The world’s oldest known Holocaust survivor has died aged 110, her family have said.
Alice Herz-Sommer, who lived in London and was originally from Prague, was confined in the Terezin – or Theresienstadt – concentration camp for two years after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War.
Ms Herz-Sommer was a renowned concert pianist who is said to have counted esteemed existentialist writer Franz Kafka among her family friends.
She was recently made the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life.
The 38-minute film is up for best short documentary at the Academy Awards to be handed out next weekend…
…Writing on the forthcoming film’s website, Ms Herz-Sommer said: “Music saved my life and music saves me still.”
She is said to have spent her final days continuing to play the works of Schubert and Beethoven, from her home in central London.
Speaking on the film’s website, she said: “I am Jewish, but Beethoven is my religion. I am no longer myself. The body cannot resist as it did in the past.
“I think I am in my last days but it doesn’t really matter because I have had such a beautiful life.
“And life is beautiful, love is beautiful, nature and music are beautiful. Everything we experience is a gift, a present we should cherish and pass on to those we love.”
The complete article, with video, is at The Telegraph.
Related: See our post from 2010: ‘The lady in number 6′
