From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall

254 Pages·2002·10.171 MB·English

by  Marian Filar, Charles Patterson

From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall

From Buchenwalad
to Cannegie Hall
Marian Filar and Charles Patterson
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
Willie Morris Books in
Memoir and Biography
Photographs courtesy of Marian Filar
www.upress.state.ms.us
Copyright © 2002 by Marian Filar and Charles Patterson
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 4 3 2 1
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Library of Congress Cataloging'in-Publication Data
Filar, Marian, 1917-
From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall / Marian Filar and
Charles Patterson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57806-419-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Filar, Marian, 1917- 2. Pianists—Poland—Biography.
I. Patterson, Charles. II. Title.
ML417.F43 A3 2002
786.2'092—dc21
[B] 2001026907
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
To my dear parents and
other family members murdered
in the Holocaust. . . and to my
sister and brothers who survived
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Prefatory Note ix
Prelude xi
Parti: Old World
Early Training 3
Conservatory Days 13
Part 2: Fires of War
War Comes to Warsaw 27
Refugee in Lemberg 34
Musical Worker 45
The Warsaw Ghetto 56
Resistance 67
Part 3: Inside the Nazi Camps
Majdanek and Skarzysko Kamienna 81
viii Contents
Buchenwald and Schlieben 94
Liberation 105
Part 4: After the Storm
The Tables Are Turned 119
Searching for Pieces of the Past 125
A New Beginning in Germany 133
Walter Gieseking 144
Enter Sol Hurok 154
Farewell to Europe 164
Part 5: New World
Getting Started in a New Land 175
Managing without a Manager 185
Settling Down 195
Philadelphia 206
Return to Warsaw 217
Index 225
inefatgony note
For a very long time I hesitated to come out with my story, even
while I read the experiences of others who had emerged alive from
the incredible hell of World War IL Somehow I felt that this was
my private life and I was not ready to talk about it. I just kept it
inside me all these years. But having retired and being constantly
prodded by my friends here and in Europe to tell my story so that it
would not be forgotten, I finally decided to give it a try.
My life wasn't ended by the Nazis, although they took much of it
away by murdering most of my family. My life went on. I was and
am a musician, a teacher, a performer, and a concert artist who has
had a long international career. And that life, too, is part of my
story.
—Marian Filar
ix