Zuzana Ruzickova

Zuzana Růžičková, born to a Jewish family in Plzeň, was a Czech harpsichordist who survived the Nazi camps of Terezín, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen as a teenager, carrying a remembered passage of Bach as a talisman. After the war she became the first musician to record Bach's complete keyboard works on the harpsichord and a revered teacher, while she and her composer husband refused to join the Communist Party. Her artistry and testimony made her a symbol of endurance through the twentieth century's catastrophes.