Zuzana Ruzickova

Childhood and early life

Zuzana Ruzickova was born in Plzen, Czechoslovakia in 1927. Her mother was Jewish and her father was an atheist.

Her family owned a department store, and her father had spent four years in Chicago in the 1920s, working at the Ginsburg Department store. Although he experienced success in the United States, Ruzickova’s father returned to Czechoslovakia, which had only recently become independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Ruzickova learned English from her father. Ruzickova characterized her childhood as “very sweet” and her parents as “very much in love”.

Ruzickova began taking piano lessons after suffering from pneumonia at the age of nine, as a reward for her recovery. Her piano teacher, Marie Provanikova, introduced her to the works of Bach and encouraged her to take up the harpsichord. Provanikova was so impressed by Ruzickova’s talent that she wrote to French-Polish musician Wanda Landowska, asking her to accept Ruzickova as a pupil at her Ecole de Musique Ancienne in the Paris suburb of Saint-Leu-la-Foret once she had finished her obligatory schooling at age 15. Ultimately, Ruzickova was not able to attend due to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws.

According to Ruzickova, her family was historically Jewish. Her mother was an Orthodox Jew, but her father was an atheist. Ruzickova described herself as not particularly religious.

For more information on the Jewish community in Czechoslovakia, see History of the Jews in the Czech Republic

Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and World War II

The Nazis began the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. In 1941, the Gestapo began organizing transports to move the Plzen Jews into Terezin, a garrison town built in the late 18th century. The camp’s first inmates, known as the Aufbaukommando, were tasked with converting the fortress and surrounding walled town into a concentration camp: known as Theresienstadt: the German name for Terezin.

In Plzen, the Gestapo used Jewish children, including a 13-year-old Ruzickova, to deliver “invitations” to other members of Plzen’s Jewish community, informing them of the date they would be deported to the camp. Ruzickova described the experience: “It was terrible—the delivery of the notices. We saw life at its very worst. It was a nightmare.”

In January 1942, three weeks after receiving an “invitation” from the Gestapo, Ruzickova and her family were forcibly relocated from Plzen to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The family was taken by train from Plzen to Terezin. Upon arrival, Ruzickova encountered Fredy Hirsch, a 25-year-old German Jew. Hirsch undertook the responsibility of caring for the camp’s children by arranging activities and exercise for them, and reserving two bunks for “Children’s Homes”.

Internment in Theresienstadt

Theresienstadt was originally designated by the Nazis as a “model community” for educated, middle-class Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. More than 150,000 people were held for months or years before being sent to their deaths at Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps in occupied Poland. Tens of thousands of people died from malnutrition and disease but despite horrific conditions, hard labor, and no medical care, the inmates managed to provide lessons for children, and staged lectures, plays, operas and concerts.

Ruzickova, along with other children in Theresienstadt, did agricultural work, applying manure to fields and working in vegetable gardens. Ruzickova was able to sneak food from the gardens to her family. Although she was forced to labor during the day, Ruzickova was able to continue her education while she was in Theresienstadt. After returning from work, Ruzickova could attend concerts and lectures staged by the residents. She was able to see opera singer Karel Berman perform, take Latin lessons from a former university professor and harmony lessons from pianist Gideon Klein, and join a children’s choir.

Ruzickova’s father died in the spring of 1943, but Ruzickova was able to remain with her mother. In December 1943, Ruzickova and her mother were sent to Auschwitz after nearly two years in the camp. Ruzickova was given a chance to remain in Theresienstadt, but chose to go with her mother.

Internment in Auschwitz

After three days on the transport, Ruzickova and her mother arrived in Auschwitz, a death camp. Having arrived at night, the prisoners were immediately placed in barracks. By this point, many were suffering from hunger and dehydration. The next day, Ruzickova and the other prisoners were taken to another barracks, stripped, and tattooed. They were then made to sign a document, which stated that they had been arrested in Theresienstadt for anti-German activities, and accepted their sentence. Soon after her arrival, Ruzickova reunited with Fredy Hirsch, who advised her to lie about her age and say she was sixteen, rather than fifteen. Borrowing a coat from her aunt Jirina, with whom she had also been reunited, Ruzickova was able to meet with Hirsch, who had organized the children’s barracks, much as he had in Theresienstadt.

Ruzickova worked with Hirsch as a teacher’s helper. In this role, Ruzickova was exposed to the extreme reality of Nazi racial theory; German doctors, including Fritz Klein, the “Chief Selector” of the camp and colleague to Josef Mengele, who Ruzickova knew in Theresienstadt, visited the children’s barracks to take physiological measurements or select children to be removed for experimentation. Ruzickova would later credit Fredy Hirsch with her survival. Had he not prompted her to lie about her age, it is likely that Ruzickova would have been gassed. Allowing her to work alongside him at the children’s barracks kept Ruzickova from more dangerous jobs and protected her from the many diseases spreading through the camp.

In May 1944, Ruzickova and the other inmates who had traveled with her from Terezin to Auschwitz were scheduled to be gassed. However, their execution was slated for June 6—D-Day. Enduring another horrific selection, Ruzickova and her mother were instead sent to Germany.

Slave Labor in Hamburg

Ruzickova was sent to Hamburg, which was being bombed regularly by British and American airmen. Under the auspices of the Neuengamme concentration camp, laborers were assigned to work in sub-camps in the area around Hamburg. Ruzickova and the other laborers worked to protect and repair an oil pipeline and to maintain gas tanks, which were subject to daily bombardment. Ruzickova was able to remain with her mother, but suffered greatly from hunger and perilous working conditions. However, she was able to earn some extra food from other prisoners by singing for them. In addition to working on the oil pipeline, Ruzickova also worked in the shipyards of Hamburg.

In January 1945, Ruzickova was moved the Tiefstack sub-camp, where she worked in a cement factory. As Allied forces advanced, the prisoners were made to dig booby-traps for tanks.

Internment in Bergen-Belsen

At the end of February, Ruzickova and the other laborers were transported to the horrific death camp of Bergen-Belsen. She would later say of Bergen-Belsen: "If ever there was Hell, this was the lowest part of Hell. This was an extermination camp—it was really meant for us to die in.”

At this point, Bergen-Belsen was disorganized, overcrowded, and stricken with disease. When her mother fell ill, Ruzickova was forced to sneak out of the camp to gather turnips in order to survive. In April 1945 Ruzickova and the other prisoners who could still walk were ordered to march from the camp to a railway station two miles away. They returned to the camp and woke the next morning to discover the Germans had gone. The guards had abandoned the camp, leaving no food. They had also disconnected the water supply. A few German and Hungarian troops remained outside the camp, randomly shooting into the barracks on occasion. On 15 April 1945 British and Canadian soldiers arrived at Bergen-Belsen.

Liberation and Aftermath of WWII

Ruzickova, along with many prisoners suffering from starvation, became seriously ill after eating the food rations provided by soldiers. At the time of liberation, she weighed only 70 pounds. Ruzickova was taken to a hospital, where she was treated for ulcers, typhus, malnutrition, and eventually diagnosed with malaria. Since she spoke English and many other languages, as she healed, Ruzickova became an indispensable translator for the medical staff.

Although Ruzickova’s mother remained gravely ill, they were able to return to Czechoslovakia in July 1945, where they found their family home occupied and possessions gone.

Musical education

Despite the extreme conditions she endured during the war, Ruzickova’s love of music thrived. In Theresienstadt, she took harmony lessons from fellow prisoner Gideon Klein. Before her transport to Auschwitz, Ruzickova transcribed a Bach piece onto paper to bring with her to the camp. While working in Hamburg, she heard Chopin on the radio and fainted.

One of the first people Ruzickova encountered upon her return to Plzen was her former piano teacher, Marie Provanikova. Ruzickova recalls that when Provanikova saw the conditions of her hands after four years in concentration camps, she wept.

The four years Ruzickova had spent in concentration camps had not only hurt her physically and psychologically, they also caused a significant delay in her progress as a musician. In order to be accepted into a music school, Ruzickova had to pass a series of examinations. She started in classes with children to regain her fundamental skills, and managed to advance every few months, from a third grade level to the required eight grade level. Ruzickova began studying piano again with Bohdan Gsolhofer, and in 1947, she was able to enroll in to the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague. Despite her rapid improvement, one of her professors discouraged her from being a professional musician. Nevertheless, Ruzickova entered the Academy and decided to specialize on the harpsichord and early music. She passed her BA and went on to earn her MA. In 1950, Ruzickova was also able to secure a position at the Academy, teaching composers to play the piano. One of her students was her future husband, Czech composer Viktor Kalabis.

Career in Communist Czechoslovakia

After the 1948 coup d’etat by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) Ruzickova was pressured to join the Communist Youth Movement. However, she refused to join the Communist Party. As a student in Prague, Ruzickova was called in front of a committee when she was discovered reading the works of Sigmund Freud, whose literature had been banned. As a faculty member at the Academy of Performing Arts, Ruzickova was subject to performance reviews that evaluated her both professionally and politically. As a Jew, Ruzickova was still vulnerable to persecution under the Communist government. An example of anti-Semitism in communist Czechoslovakia are the Slansky show trials of 1952, in which 14 members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were subject to a public trial intended to purge the government of dissident voices. 11 of the 14 defendants were Jews. The situation was so perilous that Ruzickova tried to persuade Viktor Kalabis not to marry her. Nevertheless, they wed in December 1952.

In 1956 Ruzickova won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and was offered a scholarship from jury member Marguerite Roesgen-Champion to continue her harpsichord studies in Paris. Kalabis was also invited to study in Paris, but the couple was not allowed to travel abroad together, to discourage them from defecting. Viktor went to Paris, but Ruzickova remained in Czechoslovakia.

Even though she was not able to study in Paris, Ruzickova’s win at the International Music Competition led to further invitations to perform all over Europe. Since she was highly paid for these performances, the government allowed her to travel, but confiscated all of the foreign currency that she earned. Ruzickova’s talent and success made her valuable to the state, but as a non-party member, she remained under suspicion from the Communist government. She was not allowed to teach music to Czech students. Furthermore, her participation in the Czech Philharmonic was restricted due to her Jewish heritage.

The pressures on Ruzickova were eased slightly following the death of Stalin and the relaxation of his policies. She was able to travel more freely and occasionally with her husband. However, Ruzickova did not try to defect, as she and Kalabis still had family members living in Czechoslovakia. For the first time, Ruzickova was able to record music for international distribution, which increased her fame and strengthened her association with the music of Bach. This coincided with the revival of baroque music in Western Europe. In 1965, Ruzickova was contracted to record the complete keyboard works of Bach.

Following the Prague Spring of 1968, the Czech government was under pressure to appear stable and progressive. Ruzickova was given several state-sponsored rewards, which served as propaganda for the regime. Ruzickova was unable to refuse these rewards and was often forced to accept them with great ceremony.

The Velvet Revolution

Following the events of 17 November 1989, Ruzickova participated in the protests against the government. As an artist and academic, she went on strike from the Academy of Music and the Czech Philharmonic. When the Communist regime has finally overthrown in December, Ruzickova was able to reclaim her title of “Professor,” which had been denied her despite teaching at the Academy since 1951. Ruzickova was able to serve as a committee member for music competitions, which had been a significant factor in her own success as a musician.

Ruzickova today

Ruzickova still resides in Prague. She stopped performing publicly in 2004 after her husband fell ill. Following the death of Kalabis in 2006, Ruzickova became more involved in various musical organizations and committees dedicated to the interpretation and preservation of early music, and to the discovery of young musicians. She is the president of the Viktor Kalabis & Zuzana Ruzickova Foundation, vice-president of the Prague Spring International Competition Committee, and a member of the advisory boards of the Czech Chamber Music Society and the Concertino Praga International Competition. Furthermore, she is a supporter of the Hans Krasa Initiative, dedicated to the life and music of composer and fellow Theresienstadt prisoner Hans Krasa. She is also active in the Terezin Initiative, through which she was able to fund a memorial for Fredy Hirsch.

She has recorded around 100 albums.

Titles

Medals

Prizes

Honors