ALÈH STAVì

Hanna Gaifman, with whom ties of friendship have linked me for over 30 years, was a piano student of Eliška Klein in in Prague. Unlike her brother Gideon Klein, who was murdered in Auschwitz-Fürstengrube, Eliška Klein survived the concentration camp. Thanks to Eliška, the wonderful, brilliant music of her brother Gideon, murdered at age 25, survived. My “fall leaf” traces Gideon Klein’s lifeline, which was shortened by unspeakable violence; starting at Přerov, the place of his birth, continuing via Prague to Therienstadt and ending in Auschwitz-Fürstengrube. Echoes of Gideon Klein’s music (the Fantasy and Fugue “one half of life” {Hölderlin} and the Hebrew lullaby «numa, numa schan») overlay my fall leaf, like the shadows of remembrance. Heinz Holliger