Holocaust survivor saves father's music for 70 years

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Lyrics of hope and peace, the music was written by a victim of the Holocaust, Samuel Blasz. The pages could've easily been lost amid the genocide. But Blasz's daughter, Eva Blasz Egri, a Holocaust survivor herself, held the original music sacred and secret for seventy years after she was liberated.

"I went through hell to be here in America," said Egri.

The music came alive Thursday as Egri listened to it alongside her family for the first time since her childhood.

"This is a family treasure that my mother has carried for years, we've never heard it and she hasn't heard it since before the war," said Julia Goldner, Egri's daughter.

The 90-year-old survivor doesn't like to speak of the horrors she endured at Auschwitz, a tattoo bearing her identification number on her arm is a constant reminder.

But the music, her father's creation, takes her back to before the terror, to a time when her family was together in Hungary.

"I had a beautiful childhood, I learned many things from my parents, my father," said Egri.

Egri's parents died in the gas chambers, along with three of her siblings. She describes what it is like to listen to the notes that embody her family, the legacy her father left behind.

"Very proud, happy, unbelievable," said Egri.

"I think this will be a rare experience to bring to life a family member who is long gone through his music," said Heather Coltman, the pianist for the concert, and FAU music professor.

"It's a very moving, very humbling experience," said Goldner.