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Music: Medicine for the Heart -- An Interview with Herman White

  • Published
  • By A1C Kevin Cerovich
  • USAFA Band
Sept 12, 2013 --  "I defeat time with music" says 82 year old Herman White, formerly Herman Weiss in an interview on August 16th, 2013. Originally from Munich Germany, White is a Holocaust survivor who frequents concerts by the Air Force Academy Band in Colorado Springs.


     One would be hard pressed to find a fan of the Air Force Academy Band for whom their music does more than Mr. White. He was introduced to me as a man, later in years, who comes to many of our concerts by bicycle. This caught my attention. Upon learning of his past in Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1930s and 40s I had to speak with this remarkable man.

     "I live for music. Music obliterates and creates time" says White when asked about his feelings regarding our concerts. "Your band (Air Force Academy Band) came to Colorado College sometime in the mid 1980s and I fell in love! Particularly with your fine oboist of the time, (Master Sgt.) Sarah Balian. She's the queen of the oboe!"

     White prefers our classical and chamber music groups. "My family used to have a piano, but it was smashed by the Nazis as Jewish homes were forbidden to keep musical instruments." On his refrigerator hang several black and white photos of his family members, almost all of which were murdered by the Nazis in the bleak years of WW2. White's mother who was Christian took him and his two sisters to Hungary to escape the atrocities in Germany which would ultimately stain the vast majority of East and Western Europe.

     Towards the end of the war, White said, "I remember hearing the B-17s flying over. You could feel it in your body. We were scared and yet very happy at the same time as we realized that sooner or later the Nazis would be conquered." In 1944, his sisters, mother and he fled back to Germany as the Russians overtook Hungary. From there, they waited for the liberation that did finally come at the hands of the Americans.

     "Music serves to take away that which I can't get rid of."

     After the war, White moved to the United States in 1951 and was ironically drafted into the Army during the Korean War. He served honorably as a tank repair technician in the 1st armored division. One of his sisters preceded him to Texas in 1946. White is now the patriarch of his own beloved family with children and grandchildren who listen to this amazing man speak in awe as I did.

     "Although everything changes and I've grown old, an immense music rises from the heart of things, calming my restless days. I can live with that." Herman White

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