Alice Herz-Sommer (1903–2014)

Alice Herz-Sommer was born Aliza Herz to a Jewish family in Prague, present-day Czech Republic. She had a twin sister, Mariana, an older sister Irma, and two brothers. Her father Friedrich Herz, a merchant, and her mother Sofie were part of the small German-speaking minority of assimilated Jews in Prague, although the family also spoke Czech. Her parents ran a cultural salon in their home where Alice as a child met writers, including Franz Kafka and Franz Werfel, composers such as Gustav Mahler, and philosophers and intellectuals such as Sigmund Freud. Irma taught Alice at age six to play the piano, which she studied diligently; the pianist Artur Schnabel, a friend of the family, encouraged her to pursue a career. Alice studied with study Czech pianist Václav Štěpán and attended the German Academy of Music in Prague, where she was the youngest pupil. In 1931, Alice married Leopold Sommer, a businessman and amateur violinist with whom she had a son. She was giving concerts and making a name for herself across Europe when the Nazis invaded her country at the start of World War II. Many of Alice's family and friends fled the country, but she remained in Prague to care for her frail 72-year-old mother. Sofie Herz was sent to a concentration camp in 1942 and murdered. In July 1943, Alice and Leopold and their young son were sent to the concentration camp at Terezín (Theresienstadt), where the couple were separated. Her son stayed with her during their two years at the camp; he was one of only a few children to survive there. Terezín had an orchestra, in which Alice played more than 100 concerts, performing for audiences of prisoners and guards. Leopold was sent to Auschwitz and then to Dachau, where he died of typhus six weeks before the camp was liberated. In 1949, Alice and her son emigrated to Israel, where they were reunited with some of her surviving family, including Mariana. Alice lived in Israel for 40 years, building a career as a concert pianist and music teacher at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 1986, she moved to to London to be closer to her son Raphael, who became a famous cellist, two grandsons, and daughter-in-law. She was featured in the documentary films Refuge in Music (2013) and The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (2013), made when she was 109 years old; the latter won an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.