Emily Kessler, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor from Ukraine, usually performs for a handful of seniors at community centers, but on Monday, Kessler will make her debut at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Kessler will perform at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, coinciding with a fundraising dinner hosted by non-profit organization The Blue Card.
"The annual benefit serves to support the mission of The Blue Card, providing direct financial assistance to Holocaust survivors, as well to recognize individuals dedicated to advancing human rights," according to Modern Luxury Manhattan.
"She's able to channel something very painful and deep," Executive Director of The Blue Card Masha Pearl said about Kessler, according to Vulture.
In 1941, Kessler's husband left to fight the Nazis who invaded Ukraine. He never returned home, according to Vulture. Kessler watched the Nazis shoot her brother before her family was taken to concentration camps. Kessler also witnessed S.S. soldiers kill her parents.
"I lost my mind," she said, according to Vulture. "I didn't understand [anything]. My fear took away my mind. I wanted to go only home. Until now, I don't how I survived with children, without food."
"I survived by miracle," Kessler said in a video. "I was with the baby. My baby was 2 years old. And by help of friends - non-Jewish - we managed to escape and to survive."
Kessler had blonde hair, blue eyes, a Ukrainian name and was able to acquire fake documentation with the help of "good people." Kessler still sends the grandson of those "good people" $300 from her pension every three months.
Kessler learned her love of music from her family. "We were singing," Kessler recalled of her childhood before the Nazis. "My mother, my father, we were singing. Beautiful. My mother was... had the voice, when somebody heard, they thought the radios... Said, 'What the radio? What?' 'No, this is my mother singing.'"
Kessler is ready for her big night at Fisher Hall which seats 3,000 people, according to Vulture. Kessler has been practicing six songs, but she also has lyrics ready for others... just in case the crowd wants more.
"It makes you to forget the bitterness in the life, the unfairness, and the cruelty of everything," Kessler said. "Music is not cruel. It's always peace and love."
