My Heart Is at Ease

We played a game of nostalgia, recalling the past to forget, for a while, the terrible present…. The siren at 5:00 a.m. woke us to the reality of roll call. We each wondered if we were going to be given another day of life.

Gerta Solan’s passion for music began in her childhood, inspired by the chamber concerts her parents organized in their loving home in Prague. In June 1942, twelve-year-old Gerta is deported with her parents to the Theresienstadt ghetto – the Nazis’ deceptive “model Jewish settlement” – and both music and family help her cope with the devastation surrounding her. Later, alone in Auschwitz, Gerta gathers her strength and determination to survive the unbearable. Her intrepid spirit and keen observation guides her anew through post-war communism to freedom in Canada.