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Hon Christopher Finlayson

Speech for Launch of The Violinist by Sarah Gaitanos
Grand Hall, Parliament, Thursday, 27 January 2010

There are four reasons why launching this biography of Clare

Galambos Winter on United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day
is a memorable and uplifting event.

The book combines remembrance of the Holocaust, a watershed

event in history, with the story of the life of one woman who
suffered grievously because of the Holocaust, with a
demonstration of the healing and uplifting power of music, and with
a glimpse of the way New Zealand society can work for the best.

We can only wonder each year, at this annual United Nations

remembrance commemoration, how in our lifetimes one of the
most highly civilized nations in Europe could turn on its own
citizens and make an unprecedented attempt to murder them all,
plus the Jews of all the countries it conquered during the Second
World War.

The Holocaust demonstrated how a modern nation could use its

technological expertise and bureaucratic infrastructure to
implement destructive policies ranging from social engineering to
genocide.

And from the history of the Holocaust we have to translate that

awareness of what happened during those fateful years of 1933 to
1945 into creating a New Zealand society which will never allow
those sorts of things to take place here.

That is why the work of the co-sponsor of today’s event, the

Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre, is so
important to this country. It helps the students it comes into contact
with understand the meaning and negative consequences of
prejudice, racism, anti-Semitism and stereotyping.

Those students will develop an awareness of the value of diversity

in a multiethnic and multicultural society, and be more sensitive to
the situations of minorities.
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Clare Galambos Winter is a remarkable person. You will read in

the book about her what she suffered as one of the hundreds of
thousands of Hungarian Jews who were transported like animals
to the hell of Auschwitz. I don’t think anyone who reads the book
will forget Clare’s description of her arrival at the camp:

At the head of [the columns into which we were split] stood a German
officer. He was impeccably dressed in his uniform and his boots shone
like mirrors. He was bathed, he was shaved, he was just a beautiful
shiny German in his uniform and his high boots and we smelt so shitty
and horrible. The enormous difference between our bedraggled, dirty
and smelly appearance and this man’s self-assured bearing was
indescribable. He seemed to move his fingers only as he pointed in the
direction he wished the person who stood in front of him to proceed.
Mother and Mihaly moved off to the left and joined the column that was
moving away from us. Rozsi and I were directed to the right. I vagule
wondered how we would be able to find each other later, but it was only
a fleeting thought, as I was so tired and thirsty.

Sarah Gaitanos then tells us that Clare later found out who the
officer was: Josef Mengele, the SS physician known as the ‘Angel
of Death’.

After Auschwitz, Clare was sent as a slave labourer – described as

a “piece” – to a munitions factory. In the midst of the horror and
misery, only a strong constitution, a strong will and luck enabled
her to survive where millions of other Jews didn’t.

I want to mention one other story from the book. Clare recalls
being called to the SS barracks, after the camp commander had
ordered anyone with performance skills to make themselves
known:

A horrible looking instrument was thrust into my hands and I was told to
play… We played for a couple of hours and the Germans seemed to be
very pleased. First they were dancing, then they became more and more
drunk and amorous… During our second break, while we were selecting
some more music, a dishevelled-looking couple moved away from the SS
and wove their way to the piano. They flicked through the music and the
man… leaned over the piano, looked into my eyes, came very close and
said, in German, ‘Do you understand English?’ I nodded, whereupon he
said in a very low voice, ‘Hang in there, girl, it won’t last long.’

This book shows us how Clare, with an intense love of life and
dedication to her talent as a musician, created for herself a new
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existence in a new country, without the surroundings of family and

familiarity which we take so much for granted, and which all
immigrants anywhere have to overcome.

That is where the power of creating music must have helped so

much.

Music, and particularly the rich heritage of western classical music

that was expressed through working in the symphony orchestra,
brought an artistic fulfilment that in turn enabled Clare to have a
fulfilled social and emotional life.

Playing in an orchestra is like living in a community – nothing will

succeed unless each individual co-operates with everyone else.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and New Zealand
has been privileged over the life of its national orchestra, and
continues to be privileged, because it has had dedicated players
and inspired conductors and leaders to lift it to a world standard of
performance. Clare was very much part of this for her whole
working life, and it is no wonder that she speaks of the orchestra
as “my family.”

We native-born New Zealanders can be glad that the orchestra

was able to bring Clare the satisfaction of being part of that family
of musicians, giving pleasure to thousands in their audiences,
transforming notes on the printed pages into beautiful sounds, and
living a life of fulfilment far removed from the Holocaust horrors of
her early years.

But Clare’s satisfaction has been returned to New Zealand in even

fuller measure when you read of her generosity to the musical
community through her gifts, and to the younger generations of
Kiwis through her involvement in Holocaust education.

This book is all about courage, humour, artistic talent and devotion
to community. In officially launching it I toast the author for her
work and I toast its subject, Clare, with the traditional Jewish
“L’chaim” – to life.