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Holocaust Survivor Hears Father’s Music For The First Time Live

January 6, 2012

The Holocaust stands as one of the most horrific of crimes against humanity as remaining survivors are still healing from the wounds left in the wake of the widespread genocide enacted during the Second World War. Closure has been difficult for some, but for a 90-year old Florida woman, she and fellow survivors found comfort in hearing the music of her father written over a century ago live for the very first time.

Eva Egri of Coral Springs kept the sheet music of her father Hungarian composer Samuel Blasz close to her as she made an epic journey from her native Hungary to France, then Canada and now the United States. Placed in concentration camp at the age of 23, Egri witnessed the death of fellow Jews at the hands of Nazis, including some of her own siblings. Her father and mother were both killed cruelly as well.

Last night at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, a concert, A Tribute to the Artists of the Holocaust: Seven Decades Later, a Survivor Remembers, was held to an audience of around 400. Egri’s daughter, Julia Goldner, attended alongside her mother and was moved to hear her grandfather’s music in such a setting.  “To know it's being shared with the rest of the world is beyond words,” said Ms. Goldner.

Amongst the attendees, 20 survivors were recognized during the concert and were all enthralled with Egri’s story. One Cincinnati man, a seasonal resident of Boca Raton, urged that works like that of Samuel Blasz must be preserved. “It must be saved so people never forget," he said, "If we forget our history, we're doomed to repeat it.”

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