European Parliament President Roberta Metsola will open the solemn sitting to mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January) at 12.00. It will be followed by a musical performance of Pál Hermann’s concerto.
Corrie Hermann will then address MEPs and speak about the story of her father, Hungarian-born cellist and composer Pál Hermann whom the Nazis murdered in 1944. The music performance will feature his original Gagliano cello.
After MEPs have observed a minute’s silence, the ceremony will end with a musical performance of “Kaddish” by Maurice Ravel.
27 January marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
You can watch the sitting live here.
Corrie and Pál Hermann
Born on 27 March 1902 in Budapest, Pál Hermann was a student of Béla Bartók and considered one of the best cellists of his era. He moved to Berlin in the 1920s and gave concerts all over Europe on his Gagliano cello. In 1933, Hermann fled to Belgium and France. Upon his arrest by the Nazis in Toulouse in 1944, he managed to throw a note from the train, asking for the Gagliano to be saved from the Nazis. The note was found and a friend of Hermann’s cycled 100 kilometres to rescue the instrument. He broke into Hermann’s house, replaced the Gagliano with a lesser instrument and escaped with the Gagliano strapped onto his back.
Hermann was murdered by the Nazis in a camp in the Baltics in 1944. His cello was rediscovered 80 years later being played by a competitor in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Pál Hermann’s daughter, Corrie (Cornelia) Hermann, now aged 92, will tell her father’s story, his tragic fate and his work during the commemorative plenary session.
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