By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO –Eve Gerstle expects to be sitting in Copley Symphony Hall on the evening of May 7, as a special guest of Conductor Murry Sidlin, watching the performance of the multi-media Concert-Drama, The Defiant Requiem. This remarkable lady, who is celebrating her 101st birthday, has a particular interest in this work. The Defiant Requiem relates the story of the cultural life in the Nazi show-ghetto of Terezin and demonstrates how the young conductor, Raphael Schachter, managed to recruit a 150-voice choir and give 16 performances of Verdi’s monumental Requiem. Eve Gerstle sang in that choir under Raphael Schachter.
Her deportation from Weisbaden, where she was living with her parents at the time, was delayed because she was hospitalized after a hernia operation. She was therefore sent to Terezin along with her parents. Her mother and father both perished in the ghetto from disease and malnutrition, but Eve managed to survive. Because of her lovely soprano voice, she was invited to sing in the choir. She attended rehearsals, learned the music of the Requiem by rote– Schachter had but one score– and was preparing for the first performance, when her name came up on the transport list. Eve was sent to Auschwitz. Then, she was incarcerated in Birkenau followed by forced labor at Stutthof. Finally, she was on a death march. During the march, she noticed when the guard was facing in the other direction and she managed to escape behind some bushes. When the advancing Russian soldiers came upon her and two other young women, who also fled from the march, the Russians were certain these women were German guards posing as inmates. The soldiers lined the three in front of a firing squad. One of the women began reciting the Shema. A Russian Jewish doctor, standing nearby, suddenly realized the mistaken identity and shouted to the firing squad to halt. The soldiers lowered their rifles. Eve’s life was saved.
Eva Anna Amelia Werheimer was born on April 20, 1914 in Peine, a North German town, east of Hanover. Peine had 25,000 inhabitants and its main industry was an ironworks foundry. There were about 100 Jewish families in Peine. Eve’s father was a banker. He headed the Peine branch of the Disconto Gesellschaft. His father and grandfather before him were also bankers. Eve’s mother was a high school teacher. Eve was the youngest, with three older brothers. As the only girl, she was adored by her parents and brothers.
In 1928, when her father’s bank merged with the Deutche Bank, the family moved to Weisbaden, the resort city between the Rhine River and the Taunus Mountains. Her favorite toy had been the child-sized sewing machine operated by a real pedal. She continued to develop her skill in sewing, a skill which helped sustain her in Terezin, where she was able to barter the repairing of clothing for extra food.
When she finally immigrated to the United States, she worked as a designer for Anne Klein.
Eve married Julius Gerstle, a Munich-born Jew who immigrated to America and was serving in the US Army. She met him in Weisbaden and they later married in the United States. They had two daughters.
Eve continued her interest in music. Among her record and CD collection are several different recordings of Verdi’s Requiem.
She attended every performance of the Requiem, whenever it was programmed in San Diego.
It was after one such performance, when she read my article in the now defunct San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, that she contacted me. The article was about how, while playing in the orchestra, I wondered what it might have been like, playing this work under Schachter in Terezin. When I returned her call, she told me, “I sang in that choir in Terezin.”
She graciously invited me to her apartment to see the many artifacts and books she had about Terezin and tell me about her experiences there. Although, at first, she had been reluctant to talk about the past, in later years, Eve has gone into schools in both San Diego and Weisbaden to speak about her life and to promote understanding and good will between people.
In 1999, the city of Wiesbaden honored her for her efforts to teach young people in the USA, through lectures and discussions, about the history of Wiesbaden during the Nazi regime and the need to fight hatred and discrimination.
She kept in close contact with the head of an organization in Wiesbaden which promotes inter-faith understanding. She attended the rededication of the Wiesbaden synagogue where 1500 citizens marched, each displaying the name of a Jewish deportee. Students from the Catholic Diocese performed the children’s play, Brundibar, written by the Terezin-interned composer, Hans Krasa.
During one of Maestro Murry Sidlin’s visits to San Diego, I took him to meet Eve. He was grateful for the opportunity and has stayed in touch. When he knew he was going to perform The Defiant Requiem in San Diego with the San Diego Symphony, the Master Chorale and four outstanding soloists, he invited Eve to be his special guest at the performance.
Eve plans to be there, accompanied by her daughter Susi and son-in-law, Allen. Although she alternates between a walker and a wheelchair, Eve is determined to attend this special performance.
When she and her fellow inmates sang the Requiem in Terezin, the glorious music and Latin text expressed their defiance, their belief in their ultimate liberation and in the final destruction of their Nazi captors.
Tickets are still available for the Thursday evening, May 7 performance of The Defiant Requiem. Call 858-565-6896.
*
Wingard is a former violinist with the San Diego Symphony, and a freelance writer. Your comment may be sent to eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com, or posted on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
__________________________________________________________________
Care to comment? We require the following information on any letter for publication: 1) Your full name 2) Your city and state (or country) of residence. Letters lacking such information will be automatically deleted. San Diego Jewish World is intended as a forum for the entire Jewish community, whatever your political leanings. Letters may be posted below provided they are responsive to the article that prompted them, and civil in their tone. Ad hominem attacks against any religion, country, gender, race, sexual orientation, or physical disability will not be considered for publication. There is a limit of one letter per writer on any given day.
__________________________________________________________________