Ashes to Light

Born into a Jewish family in Lvov, Poland in the early-1930s, Nelly Ben-Or was to experience, at a very young age, the trauma of the Holocaust. This narrative of her life's journey describes the survival of Nelly, her mother and her older sister. With help from family and friends, Nelly and her mother were smuggled out of the Ghetto in Lvov and escaped to Warsaw with false identity papers where they were under constant threat of discovery. Miraculously, they survived being taken on a train to Auschwitz, deported not, in fact, because they were Jews, but as citizens of Warsaw following the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis.
After the end of the war, Nelly's musical talent was free to flourish, at first in Poland and then in the recently-created State of Israel, where Nelly completed her musical studies as a scholarship student at the Music Academy in Jerusalem. Following her move to England she carried out a full concert career and also discovered the Alexander Technique for piano playing, which had a profound influence on her. Today Nelly Ben-Or is internationally regarded as the leading exponent of the application of principles of the Alexander Technique - she teaches in the keyboard department of London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, runs Alexander Technique masterclasses and regularly gives talks about her Holocaust experience.
This unique memoir is testimony to an extraordinary life and illustrates the strength of the human condition when faced with adversity.

Nelly Ben-Or MBE is a distinguished pianist and piano teacher. Born in Poland, she survived the Holocaust and now lives in London. She teaches in the keyboard department at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has broadcast frequent recitals for the BBC, performed at major concert venues in the UK and in many countries overseas. In 1963 she qualified as a teacher of the Alexander Technique - the first professional pianist to do so. She is now internationally-recognised as a leading exponent of the technique. She regularly gives masterclasses at music conservatoires, universities and at her own twice-yearly international courses in London. She regularly gives talks about her Holocaust experience, especially around Holocaust Memorial Day.

Preface
Acknowledgements
PART I: THE WAR YEARS
1 September 1939 - Nazis invade Poland
Beginnings of the Nightmare
In the ghetto and escape
Continuous hiding
Warsaw
A brief haven of peace
Trembacka Street, Warsaw
Warsaw Uprising
Proszkow - semi-freedom
The last winter of the war
End of Nazi Occupation
Beginning of new life
PART II: JOURNEYS THROUGH LIFE
13. Fulfilment through Learning
14. New influences - literature
15. Jasia, Poldi, Julian
16. To the promised land - Israel
17. Henrietta Michaelson and the Jerusalem Music Academy
18. The Mozart competition and public concerts
19. Marriage to Gabi Ben-Or
20. Death of Henrietta
PART III: ENGLAND FROM 1960
21. London - the Alexander Technique
22. Shadows from the Past - inner illness
23. Married to Roger Clynes
24. Various journeys
25. Reflections
Appendices