Zuzana Růžičková was born in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia, in 1927. She had a loving family and a happy childhood despite suffering from health issues such as tuberculosis. At nine years old, she began taking piano lessons as a reward for recovering from pneumonia. This introduced her to a passion that would persist throughout her life. The young pianist took a special interest in the music of J. S. Bach and eventually learned to play the harpsichord. Her talent was so promising that her teacher encouraged her to continue her lessons in Paris after finishing her obligatory schooling. This would unfortunately not be possible. In 1938, Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia and ended Růžičková’s happy childhood.
The Nazis implemented the Nuremberg laws in Czechoslovakia immediately after the occupation began. Since the Růžičková family was Jewish, they were forced to endure curfews and other restrictions as well as harassment from the Gestapo. They considered fleeing, but Růžičková’s father refused to abandon his country. In January 1942, they were forcibly transported to a Jewish ghetto known as Theresienstadt, where Růžičková’s father and grandparents died.
Later, in December 1943, Růžičková and her mother received the news that they would be sent to Auschwitz. Růžičková was given the option of exemption for herself only, but she insisted on staying with her mother. Before she left, she wrote part of Bach's English Suite No. 5 in E minor on a piece of paper so that she could keep the music she loved close to her.
Růžičková and her mother endured unimaginable hardships at the concentration camp. They received death sentences after about a year, but a miraculous stroke of luck saved their lives. Their executions were scheduled for June 6, 1944, which happened to coincide with the D-Day invasion. Thus, as the Germans realized the war was going badly for them, they sent many of their prisoners to labor camps in a desperate attempt to salvage the war effort. Růžičková was one of them. She was sent to Hamburg, where she was forced to work on an oil pipeline, in a shipyard, and in a cement factory. The work was brutal, but she was able to stay with her mother.
In February 1945, the two were transferred yet again. This time they were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where starvation and disease were rampant. They managed to survive until English forces liberated the camp in April. Like most other prisoners, Růžičková was severely ill by the time she was set free. She slowly recovered while working as a translator in the hospital which aided her. However, she missed her home and wanted to return when she had the chance. In July 1945, she returned to Czechoslovakia along with her mother.
The remaining Růžičkovás found that their family home and possessions had been taken during their imprisonment. Even worse, they would spend years mentally and physically healing from the horrors they had endured. Růžičková found comfort in her love of music. She was able to reunite with her old piano teacher, and even though her skills had been set back due to her imprisonment, she resumed her education and studied piano and harpsichord until she was accepted into the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Despite surveillance and restrictions from the Communist government of Czechoslovakia after its 1948 coup, Zuzana Růžičková would have an illustrious career as a performer and teacher. After winning the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1956, she was invited to perform throughout Europe and even in the USA and Japan. She even became the first person to record the complete keyboard works of Bach. Růžičková remained an active figure in the Czech Republic’s musical community until her death in 2017, at the age of ninety.
Written by Maya Bouchebl
Sources
Cowan, Rob. "Zuzana Růžičková remembered". gramophone.co.uk. 28 September 2017.
Jones, Rebecca. "The miraculous life of Zuzana Ruzickova". BBC News. 19 December 2016.
"USHMM – Transcripts of taped interviews with Zuzana Ruzickova, March 27 – April, 1991". The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive. 1991.
"ZUZANA RUZICKOVA – Harpsichordist". www.jsebestyen.org. 30 August 2023.