INTERNED PIANIST

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 132, 1 December 1945, Page 11

INTERNED PIANIST

GIVEN PIANO BY JAPANESE COMMANDER

"I feel like a fish returned to water," said Mrae. Lili Kraus. renowned Hungarian pianist, who is in Sydney to continue her interrupted tour after two and a half years' imprisonment by the Japanese in Batavia, states the "Sunday Sun." With her are her husband, Dr. Otto Mandl, and their children, Ruth and Michael, who were also interned in Batavia. Despite hardships she suffered, Mme. Kraus considers her internment one of the most important periods of her life, and says she would "not have missed it for anything." "My attitude to music became much more profound and spiritual during my long period without a piano," she went on. 'When I finally got one I found there was no limit to my memory, technique, or vision." Mme. Kraus was given a piano after a Japanese commander, who had heard her play in Tokio in 1936, learned she was in the camp. • On that piano she gave numerous concerts for fellowprisoners, many of whom were overcome by her artistry and wept silently as she played. Mme. Kraus, together with the wife of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, was accused of underground activities in Batavia and taken into custody by the Japanese. While in the prison camp Mme. Kraus had to draw buckets of water, clean latrines, and, worst of all, carry huge drums of rice and soup. This heavy manual labour, however, had no ill effect on her hands. WILL VISIT NEW ZEALAND. Since 1936 the family has owned a delightful home on the shores of Lake Corao in an isolated village of only ten houses. They travelled to Java, and because they fell in love with the place, postponed their Australian tour. The exuberant Kraus family have already made plans as far ahead as 1952. After Mme. Kraus's concerts in Sydney, the first of which will be at the Conservatorium on November 28, they will go to New Zealand, where Ruth, 15, will stay to study voice production, and Michael, 14, will attend agricultural college. Mme. Kraus will then tour Australia and other countries, and the family will eventually settle in France.