Keep talent in the family
QUESTION Is the composer Ludovico Einaudi just one of several famous people in his family?
Ludovico Einaudi is an italian pianist and composer who has fused minimalism, world music and pop to create a contemporary, classical sound.
it has proved hugely successful. He is the most streamed classical composer of all time and his music features in countless films, commercials and Tv shows.
He comes from distinguished academic stock. His grandfather, Luigi, was a highly respected economist and politician.
an unwavering opponent of Mussolini, he escaped to Switzerland in 1943. after the war, Luigi was appointed Governor of the Bank of italy and, in 1947, deputy Prime Minister and Finance and Treasury Minister. He is credited with stabilising italy’s post-war economy.
From 1948 until 1955, he was President of the Republic, a key ceremonial role. at the end of his term of office, he returned to teaching.
Ludovico’s father Giulio was a book publisher. The eponymous company he founded in 1933 flourished after the war, filling the void left by the demise of the pro-regime publishing houses.
Ludovico’s uncle Mario was a respected scholar of political theory. He was fired from the university of Messina for refusing to sign the Fascist oath and spent much of his working life at top u.S. universities including cornell.
Andrea Lowe, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION Was there an uprising at Sobibor concentration camp?
SoBiBoR concentration camp, in the Lublin district of nazi-occupied Poland, began its dreadful killing operation in May 1942.
Though most inmates were killed in its gas chambers upon arrival, a few prisoners were selected to work: as bakers, tailors, cleaners, metalworkers and carpenters, and in sorting houses, sifting through the possessions of the dead.
By the spring of 1943, rumours began circulating that the camp was to be shut down and everyone would be put to death. Polish and Jewish slave labourers organised an underground committee aimed at escaping from the camp.
There had been several failed attempts before, which resulted in collective punishment, so it was agreed only a largescale organised escape would work.
on october 14, 1943, under the cover of night, members of the underground committee killed 11 German SS officers, overpowered the camp guards and seized the armoury. The plan had been to kill all of the guards and walk out of the main gate of the camp, but the escape was discovered quickly and inmates ran for their lives under machine-gun fire.
about half of the 600 escaping prisoners managed to race into the nearby forest, but most were re-captured and shot by search squads.
it’s estimated that 158 inmates were killed by guards or in the minefield surrounding Sobibor, 107 were murdered by the SS and 53 died of other causes.
There were 58 known survivors, 48 men and ten women. The leader of the uprising, Russian PoW Lieutenant alexander Pechersky, was among the few to survive the escape and the war. Today, Sobibor is a national memorial.
Emilie Lamplough, Trowbridge, Wilts.