GREG DAWSON "HIDING IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A MUSICAL PRODIGY'S STORY OF SURVIVAL 1941-1946"
SPECIAL PROGRAM
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
EVENT INFORMATION
DATE
June 22, 2012 - June 23, 2012 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
PLACE
Museum Shop, Museum 6/22/2012 - 6/23/2012
DETAILS
GREG DAWSON "HIDING IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A MUSICAL PRODIGY'S STORY OF SURVIVAL 1941-1946"
Greg Dawson recounts his mother's story of survival. Zhanna, the daughter of a candy-maker from a tiny village in the Ukraine, quickly showed herself as a musical prodigy. She had been offered scholarships to the most prestigious conservatories in the Soviet Union. But in 1941 everything will change for Zhanna. Her family is picked to be executed alongside thousands of other Jews in the Ravines of Drobitsky Yar. A few short miles from certain death, she escapes into the forest with only the clothes on her back and a copy of Chopin's "Fantasy Impromptu" in her pockets. She conceals her true identity and roams the countryside in search of food and shelter. A local piano tuner hears her play and brings her to a Nazi commander, who is so taken with her exquisite talent that she soon becomes the performing darling of the Nazi forces. She was able to survive because of her amazing talent and fulfill her father's one wish "just survive".
Museum
