How a Jewish grandfather survived the Nazis and four labour camps by playing piano in his head By Ysenda Maxtone Graham Published: 16:54, 30 June 2024 | Updated: 16:54, 30 June 2024 e-mail View comments The Piano Player Of Budapest by Roxanne de Bastion (Robinson, £22, 288p) If you visited Stratford-upon-Avon in the 1960s, you might remember a restaurant called Paprika, a souvenir shop called Shakespeare’s Doorstep, and a fashion shop called Chez Vivienne. The couple who ran those small businesses, Stephen and Edith de Bastion, were Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivors. You wouldn’t have guessed from their faces what horrors they’d been through.
But behind closed doors, Stephen would sometimes erupt in sudden fury. He was particularly sensitive to the cold and the smell of smoke. ‘Close the window!’ he would shout; or ‘This egg stinks!’ Those moments were outlets for his post-traumatic rage.
In their council house on the outskirts of the town, Stephen and Edith kept a treasured item from Stephen’s past: a Bluthner baby grand piano, which had come from his family’s burnt-out house in Budapest. Before the Second World War, Stephen de Bastion had been a sought-after pianist, dazzling wealthy restaurant and hotel guests across Europe Before the war, Stephen had been a sought-after pianist, dazzling wealthy restaurant and hotel guests across Europe with his brilliant musical showmanship. He loved his glittering career, and was so wrapped up in it that he didn’.
