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De Pianiste Van Theresienstadt (2012)

by Caroline Stoessinger(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

9460232019 (ISBN13: 9789460232015)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Boekerij

review 1: Alice Herz-Sommer is a truly inspirational woman, who did not allow the atrocities and losses she experienced in the Nazi concentration camps to affect the rest of her life. She lived life to the fullest and was grateful for every single thing, whether big or small, she was given. We all can learn from Alice and live and be happy in the present. In Alice's own words " Every day is a miracle. No matter how bad my circumstances, I have the freedom to choose my attitude to life,even to find joy.No one can take this power away from us." A truly remarkable and talented woman, whose attitude to life is positive and refreshing. It's no wonder she has lived 109 full and wonderful years.
review 2: A biography whose title sums up in short who and what it's all about. A f... moreairly swift read and given the subject matter quiet a light work. Alice (a gifted pianist in pre-war Europe) speaks through the author Catherine Stoessinger who fills also descibes Alice's life from a middle class childhood in Czechoslovakia, to the Nazi showpiece concentration camp of Theresienstadt (where a Nazi admirer of her talent promised ALice and her son would appear on no deportation list) , the freedom of the early years of the embryonic state of Israel to retirement in London. Her biography is a powerful testament to the devestation of the Holocaust, to the loss of so many lives and so much gifted talent to the rebirth of the Jewish people in Israel and their struggle for survivial against great odds. Alice dealt with her traumatic life philosophically having been robbed of everything that was not in her mind she came to believe "Only what is inside is important" and that while Jewish Beethoven was her religion. Freed from Theresienstadt by the Red Army ALice returned to a Praha to find a maliscious anti-Semitism prevelant. Eventually finding refuge in Israel Alice began to rebuild her life. From the pages of the book comes a picture of a woman who has always been strong and sure. Her love of life and people, judging the individual rather than the group or mass has obviously been a strength in her life. Her progressive approach to love, sex and child rearing could do with being taken in by many people today, wisdom such as this comes from many years of patient learning and reflection. An interesting book about a woman with a life stranger than fiction. I did however feel that Stossinger was not perhaps the best person to tell the story, the style is a little on the weak side, however, better the story told by someone trying hard than not told at all. less

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