Melissa Müller

A great biography of Anne Frank; its style is simple and selfless, entirely in service of the subject.

I'm a slow reader, but it took me less than two days to finish.

Actually I felt as if I read three books here.

The first of these consists of the years before the Franks went into hiding. Ms. Muller tells us vividly about what was going on in Germany in the eyes of ordinary people like Anne's father, Otto. It is gripping to read about people's decisions in those days to leave or not to leave Germany. Their growing fear is palpable, and if you've only read Anne's diary, it may be especially interesting for you to read about the impact on the Franks of Hitler's occupation of Holland, which took place two years before Anne began her diary.

Then come the years in hiding, which is a very different part of the biography -- the second of three "books" or distinct experiences that I had. The prelude to the hiding consists of a portrait of the "external" world, in which Anne herself appears as an extroverted child, one with a personality more difficult than I had imagined, and one who was not yet aware of the larger history taking place around her; I dare say she can be the least interesting element of the first part of the biography. But once we come to the years in hiding, Anne is forced to become more introspective, and her inner life comes to the fore.

This part of the biography actually becomes something of a meditation on family life and human intimacy. My reading slowed down, but the content was actually more interesting than the large-scale historical portrait. This was really more than I had expected from a biography of one girl -- it turned into a sympathetic account of Anne's whole family and its individual members. The discussion of a formerly unpublished diary entry concerning the Franks' marriage, which delves as well into the issue of censorship, is, I think, the highlight of the book. It is obvious that Ms. Muller is both sympathetic to the protagonists and committed to the truth, which makes the subsequent turn to other well-trod subjects, like Anne's own love life, appear like an anticlimax.

Still, the story does not flag, and we arrive finally at the "third" section of the biography, the account of the betrayal and the concentration camps. To say that this material is gripping is to say nothing. Yet I was newly disturbed by the details here. From a historical point of view, what Ms. Muller has highlighted to great effect is how everything the Nazis did was intended not just to destroy, but also to humiliate. This had already been clear in Ms. Muller's chronicling of the sequence of restrictions placed upon the lives of Dutch Jews, which are rightly described as "malevolent." Here at the close of the book we see it repeatedly, as when Ms. Muller describes the disorientation that Jewish prisoners must have felt upon disembarking from trains at Auschwitz and being greeted with high floodlights and whippings. This is large-scale history from the personal vantage point, as with any biography -- but it enhances the history around it. Often what the Nazis did, because it is analyzed in an attempt to understand how it came about and how it functioned, is remembered in the abstract, so that, for instance, the restrictions on Dutch Jews can seem merely like the necessary steps to genocide rather than the malevolent expressions of hatred that they also were.

In the end the biography, though impossible to put down, becomes hard to read. The one negative thing I can say about the last part of the book is that it is so horrifying, it overwhelms a reader's reception of the gifts in the earlier sections; those have to be taken in again under a second reading.… (more)

Alice’s Piano: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer by Melissa Muller
349 pages

★★★★

In February of this year there were reports of the world's oldest known Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer, passing away at the age of 110 years old. As is the norm for me, I had to know more about this woman and asap! What an extraordinary life this woman lived. In 1943, Alice and her family were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Many of Alice’s family and friends would perish in the next couple years but she stayed alive and kept her son alive by her talent alone, piano playing. She would play over 100 concerts for the guards, visitors (such as the Red Cross – concert were held as a cover to the deplorable conditions), and even fellow prisoners. She often felt guilty for the fact that she got to live when so many others didn’t but she would live her life to the fullest during her stay in the concentration camp and for many, many years after liberation.

This was such an interesting story about an incredible woman. There are people who have been through far less than she did and can’t begin to hold the amazing attitude she carried until the end. This is was a well written biography of Alice. Obviously the main focus of this book follows her time in the concentration camp but the life she led before and after are also well chronicled throughout. I will admit to getting bored in places but only due to my lack of knowledge. When the author delved into other composers and music I can only say I know a little about it and it left me wanting to get back to Alice’s story. Overall a wonderful and quick read. This woman really was an amazing person; I wish I could have met her.
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