Alice Herz-Sommer, a renowned concert pianist who was believed to have been the world's oldest known Holocaust survivor, died in London on Sunday at the age of 110.
A documentary about her, The Lady in Number 6, is up for best short documentary at the Academy Awards on March 2. The Guardian reports:
She was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague at a time when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and endured the city's ghetto following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. She then spent two years in Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp, where nearly 35,000 prisoners perished.In an extraordinary life, she counted Franz Kafka as a family friend when she was young and carried a devotion to music that sustained her in the camp.
She died in a hospital on Sunday morning after being admitted on Friday, according to her family. Her grandson, Ariel Sommer, said: "Alice Sommer passed away peacefully this morning with her family by her bedside.
"Much has been written about her, but to those of us who knew her best, she was our dear 'Gigi'. She loved us, laughed with us, and cherished music with us."