Oldest-known Holocaust survivor dies at 110 in London, family says

Associated Press

LONDON

Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest Holocaust survivor, died at age 110 on Sunday, a family member said. The accomplished pianist’s death came just a week before her extraordinary story of surviving two years in a Nazi prison camp through devotion to music and her son is up for an Oscar.

Herz-Sommer died in a hospital after being admitted Friday with health problems, daughter-in-law Genevieve Sommer said.

“We all came to believe that she would just never die,” said Frederic Bohbot, a producer of the documentary “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life.” “There was no question in my mind, ‘would she ever see the Oscars.’”

The film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Malcolm Clarke, has been nominated for best short documentary at the upcoming Academy Awards.

Herz-Sommer, her husband and her son were sent from Prague in 1943 to a concentration camp in the Czech city of Terezin.

An estimated 140,000 Jews were sent to Terezin and 33,430 died there. About 88,000 were moved on to Auschwitz and other death camps, where most of them were killed. Herz-Sommer and her son, Stephan, were among fewer than 20,000 who were freed when the notorious camp was liberated by the Soviet army in May 1945.