Natalia Karp

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Natalia Karp (née Weissman) (February 27, 1911 - July 9, 2007) was a London based concert pianist and Holocaust survivor.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early life

She was born as Natalia Weissman in Kraków, Poland, and began learning piano at the age of four.[2] At the age of thirteen she moved to Berlin, and by eighteen she made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. However, she returned to Poland almost immediately after due to the death of her mother, and married lawyer Julius Hubler, who disapproved of her performing.[1]

[edit] Holocaust

In 1943, after the death of her husband in a bombing raid, Karp was sent to the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp where she came into contact with Amon Göth. [1] On his birthday, Göth ordered her to play for him and was impressed enough with her performance to spare not only her life but that of her sister as well.[3] She chose to play a Chopin nocturne, and would in later years be known for her interpretations of his pieces.[4] Eventually, she and her sister were sent to Auschwitz, but both survived the war.[3]

[edit] Post war career

Following the war, she resumed her musical studies, and married a Polish diplomat named Josef Karpf.[2] After claiming political asylum in London, she went on to give birth to two daughters. Upon dropping the "f" from her professional name, Karp went on to perform with the Krakow Philharmonic, performed for Oscar Schindler who saved many of the Jews in the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, made nine tours of Germany, and continued to perform into her nineties.[1] She would often play with a pink handkerchief she bought shortly after the war on the piano as a symbol of the femininity she felt she had lost during her time in the concentration camps.[4] She was survived by her two daughters.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Natalia Karp. TimesOnline.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  2. ^ a b Heslop, Caroline. Natalia Karp. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  3. ^ a b Charters, David. Natalia Karp. LiverpoolDailyPost.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  4. ^ a b Natalia Kemp. Telegraph.co.uk.