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Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival: 1941-1946
Hiding in the Spotlight A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival 19411946 Author:Greg Dawson The extraordinary story of a young girl whose musical genius saves her from the Holocaust. By the age of six, Zhanna had developed a repertoire fellow students twice her age would envy. Scholarships to the most prestigious conservatories in the Soviet Union soon followed -- conservatories that had produced legends like Rachmaninoff, Kogan, and H... more »orowitz.
In 1941 disaster strikes. The Nazi Army is smashing through the Ukraine en route to Moscow. Zhanna and her family are to be executed alongside thousands of others in the ravines of Drobitsky Yar. A few short miles from certain death, her father bribes a nearby guard, and she escapes into the forest with only the clothes on her back, a copy of Chopin’s Fantasy Impromptu in her pocket, and her father’s parting words echoing in her head: “I don’t care what you do, just live.”
Adopting a new identity and ever fearful of recognition, Zhanna roamed the ravaged countryside. One lonely evening, the head of a local Nazi battalion hears her play. he is so taken with her exquisite interpretation of Chopin that little Zhanna soon becomes the performing darling of the Nazi forces.
Performing and giving concerts for the occupying German troops as they move throughout Europe, Zhanna keeps her true identity a secret until a young American soldier with ties to Julliard adopts her. Upon her emigration to America, Zhanna's gift flourishes and she becomes one of the first Jewish refugees to enter Julliard.« less