The remarkable memoir of Zuzana Ruzicková Holocaust survivor and world-famous harpsichordist.
'Extraordinary' Sunday Times 'Compelling' Daily Telegraph Zuzana Ruzicková grew up in 1930s
Czechoslovakia dreaming of two things: Johann Sebastian Bach and the piano. But her peaceful
melodic childhood was torn apart when in 1939 the Nazis invaded. Uprooted from her home
transported from Auschwitz to Hamburg to Bergen-Belsen bereaved starved and afflicted with
crippling injuries to her musician's hands the teenage Zuzana faced a series of devastating
losses. Yet with every truck and train ride a small slip of paper printed with her favourite
piece of Bach's music became her talisman. Armed with this 'proof that beauty still existed'
Zuzana's fierce bravery and passion ensured her survival of the greatest human atrocities of
all time and would continue to sustain her through the brutalities of post-war Communist rule.
Harnessing her talent and dedication and fortified by the love of her husband the Czech
composer Viktor Kalabis Zuzana went on to become one of the twentieth century's most renowned
musicians and the first harpsichordist to record the entirety of Bach's keyboard works.
Zuzana's story told here in her own words before her death in 2017 is a profound and powerful
testimony of the horrors of the Holocaust and a testament in itself to the importance of
amplifying the voices of its survivors today. It is also a joyful celebration of art and
resistance that defined the life of the 'first lady of the harpsichord'- a woman who spent her
life being ceaselessly reborn through her music.
