Alice Hertz Sommer remembers Kafka. "A slightly strange man."
At the age of 106, there is much that she remembers. An article in Haaretz by Ofer Aderet posted on The Millions.
At the age of 106, there is much that she remembers. An article in Haaretz by Ofer Aderet posted on The Millions.
In 1942 the Germans arrested her sick mother, Sophie, who was 72 at the time, and subsequently murdered her.
"That was the lowest point in my life," Sommer says. "A catastrophe. The bond between a mother and her child is something special. I loved her so much. But an inner voice told me, 'From now on you alone can help yourself. Not your husband, not the doctor, not the child.' And at that moment I knew I had to play Frederic Chopin's 24 etudes, which are the greatest challenge for any pianist. Like Goethe's 'Faust' or Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.' I ran home and from that moment on I practiced for hours and hours. Until they forced us out."
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