Alice Herz-Sommer was the last survivor of the Theresienstadt ghetto, a few dozen miles outside Prague. Theresienstadt, although advertised by the Nazis to be a place where artists were shielded from war, was in fact a death center, in which many displaced people died from starvation and infectious diseases, and of course it was a transit center for the extermination camps of Eastern Europe.
On the 8th episode of “Silent Tracks”, Thomas Sideris follows the thread of history from the beginning, from Alice’s birth in Prague at the dawn of the 20th century. Prague before the war had been a city alive with music and literature. The Sommer family develop close bonds of friendship with Franz Kafka, and Alice’s childhood and youth memories are filled with his exuberant presence. Kafka plays a decisive role in how Alice begins to perceive the world and people.
[with Greek Audio]
___
14 radio-documentaries about the Holocaust. Oral testimonies and narratives, diaries, handwritten notes. The anthropogeography of the Holocaust, through the traces of space and people.
Research-documentation-presentation: Thomas Sideris – journalist, Ph.D. in Social Geography
Broadcast: Friday 8 December 2023, 13.00-14.00