World's Oldest Holocaust Survivor, Alice

Herz-Sommer, Dies in UK
By Reuters

(Reuters) - A 110-year-old woman believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust and
who endured the ordeal partly through her passion for music, has died in London, her family
said on Sunday
Alice Herz-Sommer, who is said to have counted writer Franz Kafka among her family friends
and is the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, was a Jewish pianist and musician
from Prague in what is today the Czech Republic.
In 1943, the Nazis sent her and her young son to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where
tens of thousands of people lost their lives.
Neither her husband Leopold nor her mother Sofie survived World War Two, but she and her
son did.
Her grandson, Ariel Sommer, confirmed her death in London on Sunday, saying: "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'."
He added: "She loved us, laughed with us, and cherished music with us. She was an
inspiration and our world will be significantly poorer without her by our side."
Herz-Sommer was born in Prague in 1903. She and her son Raphael were freed from Nazi
captivity in 1945 when the Soviet Red Army liberated their camp, and emigrated to Israel
before settling in Britain.

Raphael, an accomplished cellist and conductor, died in 2001

A documentary film, "The Lady in Number 6," covers Herz-Sommer's life. It has been
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary at the forthcoming Oscars.

Malcolm Clark, the film's director, and Nick Reed, its producer, said in a statement that telling
her story had been a life-changing experience for the crew and they felt honored to have been
able to capture her "lessons" for future generations.
"Even as her energy slowly diminished, her bright sprit never faltered," they said. "Her life
force was so strong, we could never imagine her not being around. We can all learn so much
from this most amazing woman."

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