Alice Herz - Sommer

Alice Herz-Sommer, also known as Alice Sommer (26 November 1903 – 23 February 2014), was a Jewish pianist, music teacher, and supercentenarian from Bohemia, and a survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. One of a few surviving supercentenarians known for other than their longevity, has lived in Belsize Park in London since 1986, and at the age of 110 was the world's oldest known Holocaust survivor.

A film about her life, The Lady in Number 6, is currently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Doc

Background

Alice Herz was born in Prague, which was then in Austria-Hungary, along with her twin sister Mariana, to Friedrich and Sofie Herz; he was a merchant and her mother was highly educated and moved in circles of well-known writers. As a child, she met Gustav Mahlerand Franz Kafka. Herz-Sommer's older sister Irma taught her how to play piano, which she studied diligently. She also studied under Václav Štěpán (cs), and at the Prague German Conservatory of Music. She had begun giving concerts and making a name for herself before the Germans took over her city.

She married the businessman and amateur musician Leopold Sommer in 1931; the couple had a son, Raphael, who died in 2001. After the invasion of Czechoslovakia, most of her family and friends emigrated to Palestine via Romania, including Max Brod and brother-in-law Felix Weltsch, but Herz-Sommer stayed in Prague to care for her ill mother, who was one of the first to be sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp.

In July 1943, she, her husband, and their six-year-old son Raphael were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp. She played more than 100 concerts in the camp along with other musicians. Leopold Sommer was later sent to Auschwitz. Although he survived the camp, he died at Dachau in 1944. After the Soviet liberation of Theresienstadt in 1945, Herz-Sommer and Raphael returned to Prague and in March 1949 emigrated to Israel to be reunited with her family. She lived in Israel and worked as a music teacher in Jerusalem until emigrating to London in 1986. Raphael Sommer, her only child, was an accomplished cellist and conductor. He died in 2001 and his widow and two sons survived him.

Herz-Sommer lived close to her family in London, with visits almost daily from her closest friends, her grandson Ariel Sommer, and daughter-in-law Genevieve Sommer. She died in hospital on 23 February 2014, after being admitted two days previously in London.

Media

The BBC TV documentary Alice Sommer Herz at 106: Everything Is a Present, written and produced by Christopher Nupen, was first broadcast on BBC Four. She was featured on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour in 2004 and in The Times, and The Guardian.In 2012, Random House published Caroline Stoessinger's book, A Century of Wisdom: Lessons From the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer the World's Oldest Living Holocast Survivor, with an introduction by President Václav Havel and accolades from Elie Wiesel, Pat Conroy and Gloria Steinem. Stoessinger won the Norman Mailer Award. The Jewish Week book critic wrote "Stoessinger, a pianist and musical director, captures Herz-Sommer's moral strength, sense of humour, modesty, independence, curiosity about people and abounding love." A Century of Wisdom is being published in translation in 26 countries. Herz-Sommer was also the subject of A Garden of Eden in Hell, first published in German in 2005 (reprinted in English as Alice's Piano).

The film The Lady in Number 6 documents Herz's life and is currently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.umentary.