Sarah Gaitanos

Having read about Clare's story in the 'Listener' I put the Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre, which opened on 19 April 2012, on the must visit list with the family whilst in Wellington on 7 May 2012. There we viewed the hemp dress that Clare wore along with other information. The diplay that most effected me enough to make me cry were the three framed children's drawings. Underneath their names were the details plus 'transported to Auschwitz' and 'did not survive'. On return home I started reading Clare's story in 'The Violinist'.

Twenty-year-old Hungarian Holocaust survivor Klara Galambos was a violin student in Budapest in March 1944. Her story is told by Wellington writer Sarah Gaitanos. Klara survived being arrested, confined to a ghetto, taken by train in shocking conditions to Auschwitz during which they stacked the dead against the door of the cattle cart. Later she was transferred to a slave labour camp. Clare and her aunt Rozsi were the only members of their family to survive. Later, Klara changed her name to Clare and along with Rosie (Rozsi) made her way to Wellington to start a new life away from the horrors they had endured. There Clare joined the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with which she played for 33 years.

This book has been extensively researched and is rich in detail. Claire's tale is told in a matter of fact way. The horrors dealt with are, as with all the holocaust stories, shocking every time. A little bit more editing would have helped the flow in places, but altogether this is a story of the part that the beauty of music and the focus of playing can have in the healing of the human spirit. A story that needed telling.… (mais)