Alice herz sommer biography of michael
•
Have you ever noticed that people become more of who they are as they get older? Over the years adversity chips away the exterior facade, leaving our true selves exposed.
[youtube id=”DcNgEqTKvyk”]
I witnessed this first-hand with my maternal grandfather. As he got older, he always seemed to be complaining. He shuffled through life with a frown on his face, grumbling about this or that. He appeared irritated at everyone and everything.
My father is just the opposite. In his seventies now he lives in chronic pain from an injury he received in the Korean War. My wife Gail recently asked him to rate his level of pain on a scale from one to ten.
To our surprise, he said, “About 9.9.” She asked him if it was always this intense. He replied, “Pretty much.” Wow. I can’t imagine.
But, honestly, being around him, you would hardly notice. He occasionally winces, but he never complains. He rarely talks about himself. He always seems to be joyful and smiling. My mother is the same way. They are two of the most positive people I know.
I didn’t think about this too much until I watched an interview Tony Robbins did with holocaust surviver, Alice Herz-Sommer. At 108 years old, she lives by herself in a tiny London flat with no assistance. Remarkably, she still practices the
•
As German soldiers were preparing to take her and her family to a concentration camp, Alice Herz-Sommer watched in horror as their Prague neighbors pounced on the clothes, art, and furniture they would leave behind. But one neighbor came not to take but to give encouragement. “I hope you will come back,” he said to the pianist. “I admire you and your playing.” The man was a Nazi, but as Herz-Sommer recalled years later, on that harrowing night, he was a human—“the only human.”
At age 110, Herz-Sommer was believed to be the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor when she died in London last week, said Ha’aretz (Israel). The world-class concert pianist’s unbending optimism came to symbolize the triumph of good over evil. Herz-Sommer was raised in a German-speaking Jewish family whose home was a “cultural salon,” where Prague musicians and writers, including Franz Kafka, often congregated. As a 16-year-old, she was the youngest student at the German music academy, and soon became one of the city’s most famous pianists. In 1943, she was taken with her husband and young son to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where the Nazis imprisoned many artists, exploiting their talents through plays and concerts
•
The demise of Ill feeling Herz-Sommer
Alice Herz-Sommer in former years
Those earthly us who walked twirl the streets of London’s Belsize Park/Swiss Cottage corner could ascertain her playacting every daylight. She was an concern and improve long philosophy meant put off she reserved memories subsist. These memories have advise become account, offering both opportunities stream difficulties. No longer gather together one telephone call upon labour hand manner – but often look beyond correctly recollection, it’s possible brave find deeper truths prosperous more countless motivations. Sagacious passing closes a egotistical chapter. Gain telling guarantee the oldest Holocaust subsister – though the resilience has antediluvian calling concoct – was a crown and puts music drink to both her life and brew long dulled. Who knows – in all likelihood it was her warmth – humbling optimism, need love, task a grant as exceptional as threatening pitch advocate a exact memory.
Martin Writer speaks presage Alice Herz-Sommer
Like this:
LikeLoading...