A Century of Wisdom

Caroline Stoessinger

At 108 years old, the pianist Alice Herz-Sommer is an eyewitness to history. She has seen it all, surviving the Theresienstadt concentration camp, attending Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem, and along the way coming into contact with some of the most fascinating historical figures of our time. As a child in Prague, she spent weekends and holidays in the company of Franz Kafka and Gustav Mahler, and Sigmund Freud and Rainer Maria Filke were friendly with her mother. When Alice moved to Israel after the war, Golda Meir attended her house concerts, as did Arthur Rubinstein, Leonard Bernstein and Isaac Stern.

Despite her years of imprisonment, the murders of her mother, husband and friends by the Nazis and, much later, the premature death of her son, Alice has been victorious in her ability to live a life without bitterness. A CENTURY OF WISDOM is lessons from a remarkable and inspiring woman, and evidence of her lifelong determination - in the face of some of the worst evils known to man - to find goodness in life.