A Century of Wisdom: Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the World's Oldest Living Holocaust Survivor

by Caroline Stoessinger

  7 “Be patient toward all”: Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, trans. M. D. Herter (New York: W. W. Norton, 1934), p. 27.

  14. ALICE THE TEACHER

  1 “I compose for the glory”: Joseph Machlis, The Enjoyment of Music (New York: W. W. Norton).

  15. CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

  1 Zdenka Fantlova, The Tin Ring: How I Cheated Death, trans. Deryck Viney (Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Northumbria Press, 2010), p. 35.

  CODA: ALICE TODAY

  1 “Our art consists of”: Brod, Franz Kafka.

  2 “writing is a kind of prayer”: Ibid., p. 214.

  3 “God is the silence”: Elie Wiesel, Ani Maamin, trans. Marion Wiesel (New York: Random House, 1973), p. 87.

  4 “Spinoza’s God who reveals himself”: Alberto A. Martinez, Science Secrets: The Truth About Darwin’s Finches, Einstein’s Wife, and Other Myths (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011).

  5 “Not until our time”: Zweig, The World of Yesterday, p. xxi.

  6 “Our greatest debt of gratitude”: Ibid., p. xii.

  7 “indestructible”: “Man cannot live without a lasting trust in something indestructible within himself.” Brod, Franz Kafka, p. 214. According to Brod, “In this sentence Kafka formulated his religious position.”

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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  About the Author

  CAROLINE STOESSINGER is a pianist who has appeared on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; in concert halls from Tokyo and Johannesburg to the Sydney Opera House; and from the White House to Prague Castle. For twenty-five years she has performed repeatedly with the Tokyo String Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Talich Quartet, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. Lukas Foss composed Elegy for piano and orchestra for Stoessinger, who premiered the work in New York and Oslo with the composer conducting. She has produced and written the scripts for internationally televised programs and public events including the dedication of the Schindler violin at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the first New York production of Brundibár. She served as artistic director at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine and the Legacy of Shoah Film Festivals in Prague and New York. A consultant to the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, Stoessinger has spoken worldwide for the Young Presidents’ Organization, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the Chief Executive Forum. She is artistic director of chamber music at the Tilles Center, professor and artist-in-residence at John Jay College, artistic director of the Newberry Chamber Players at the Newberry Opera House, and president of the Mozart Academy. She lives in New York City, where Mayor Bloomberg recently presented her with an American Dreamer Award.

 

 

 
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