Today, February 23rd 2014, Alice Herz Sommer, the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world passed at age 110. She survived the Theresienstadt concentration where she performed in over 100 concerts for prisoners and guards. She was a beloved piano player and her story continually inspires me. Although she suffered many losses and trials, she continually saw the world and all it has to offer in a unique and beautiful way.
Here are a few quotes from this amazing woman:
"We had to play because the Red Cross came three times a year. The Germans wanted to show its representatives that the situation of the Jews in Theresienstadt was good. Whenever I knew that I had a concert, I was happy. Music is magic. We performed in the council hall before an audience of 150 old, hopeless, sick and hungry people. They lived for the music. It was like food to them. If they hadn’t come [to hear us], they would have died long before. As we would have."
"I look at the good. When you are relaxed, your body is always relaxed. When you are pessimistic, your body behaves in an unnatural way. It is up to us whether we look at the good or the bad. When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. When you give, you receive."
"I have lived through many wars and lost everything many times- my husband, my mother and my beloved son. Yet life is beautiful and I have so much to love and enjoy. I have no time nor space for permission and hate. I have had such a beautiful life. Life is beautiful, love is beautiful. Nature and music is beautiful. Everything we experience is a gift, a present we should cherish and pass on to those we love."
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