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A Century of Wisdom by Caroline Stoessinger: book review


A Century of Wisdom: Lessons from the Life of AliceHerz-Sommer the World’s Oldest Living Holocaust Survivor (2012) is a biography based on Alice’s memories as told to the author, as well as filmed interviews from 2004-2011.

Born in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1903, she was a musician when she met her husband, Leopold, an amateur violinist, and married him in 1931. Their son, Raphael, was born in 1937. Her father died in 1928, her eldest brother Georg died from the effects of alcohol in 1931, and her brother Paul married a Hungarian Catholic, but her sister Irma – 12 years older than her – and her twin sister Marianne (nicknamed Mitzi) fled their homeland after the Nazi invasion. Alice stayed with her mother. At 72 years, in early 1942, her mother Sofie was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. A year later, on July 5, 1943, the Nazis sent Alice, Leopold and Raphael to the same camp, but she could not find her mother.

The Nazis advertized Theresienstadt as a spa town, where Jewish musicians, artists, scientists, and teachers could “resettle.” But of the 156,000 Jews imprisoned there only 17,500 survived, one of which was Alice. Between 1942 and 1945 more than 15,000 children were taken to Theresienstadt, with approximately 100 surviving, one of which was Alice’s son. Alice continued playing piano at the concentration camp: “Music was our food.”

Alice spent two years at Theresienstadt until the camp was liberated on May 8, 1945. Leopold was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and to Dachau, where he died in March 1945, a month and one day before Dachau was liberated. A friend brought back Leopold’s tin spoon, her only memento of him.

Moving back to Prague, Alice’s house was now occupied, and she eventually joined her sisters in Israel in 1949. She migrated to London to be with her son in 1986 at the age of 83.

At 108 years of age at the time of the novel, Alice had seen the best and worst of mankind. “Good and evil have been around since prehistoric times. It is how we handle it, how we respond, that is important.” The biography contains three pages of Alice’s tips for life, such as: use your brain constantly, gratitude is essential for happiness, laughter is wonderful, love to work, boredom is unhealthy, stay informed, be kind, friends are precious, maintain optimism, and human contact in all its many forms does indeed keep you human.

Stoessinger shows Alice Herz-Sommer to be “persistently independent … and supremely optimistic.” She retained a simple lifestyle throughout her years with a never-ending love for her music, which she claimed was the reason for her survival in Theresienstadt and her longevity. But above all she was understanding, compassionate, and tolerant, living a life without greed, regret, revenge, or bitterness.


Alice Herz-Sommer died in February 2014, outliving her son by 13 years.



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