She moved to Israel for 10 years and married again. Things continued to be interesting for Ginsberg. Ginsberg, who studied piano for many years in her youth, worked with her husband in composing songs for pop stars such as Dean Martin, Doris Day and Nat King Cole, as well as for European singers.īy the late 1950s, Ginsberg tired of Hollywood life, which she characterized in the New York Times film as “all fake.” At a certain point she parted with La-La Land, and also with Kollman, with whom she had her only daughter. They settled in Los Angeles and worked in Hollywood. Several years after the war, she and Kollman moved to the US. The excitement in Ginsberg’s life did not end there. As recounted in a German-language memoir by Ginsberg, she was later tapped to manage a villa set up by the American OSS to spy on Nazis and coordinate operations by partisan groups fighting the Germans. In return for all of Ginsberg’s mother’s jewels, he smuggled the family into Switzerland, where they initially ended up in a refugee camp. In 1942, Ginsberg’s mother was able to turn to a family friend, a count whom Ginsberg said was involved in smuggling.
Ginsberg said the family avoided deportation because her brother and Kollman were assigned essential work as grave diggers. Ginsberg, her mother, her younger brother, and her fiancé (musical composer Otto Kollman, who would become Ginsberg’s first husband), were stranded in Vienna. We didn’t hear from him for seven years,” Ginsberg said. “We didn’t know that my father was in England because the war started. Ginsberg’s father was fortunate to be among the refugees allowed to disembark in the UK. The ship was denied permission to land in Cuba, Canada and the US, and was forced to turn back to Europe. Louis, the infamous ship that set sail from Hamburg, Germany on carrying more than 900 Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Her father made it out of Europe on the St. (Courtesy)ĭid she or her parents see the Nazi Anschluss and the Holocaust coming? “Nobody could believe it could happen,” she said.Īfter the annexation of Austria by the Nazis, her family was separated. We went on a ski week every year with our school,” Ginsberg said. We went to the dance school, where were trained to behave like before the War.
We lived in the city, and we also had a weekend villa. When asked what her life was like as a girl, she scoffed, “You want me to remember? It was so long ago.” Then she started recounting. Ginsberg was born in 1922 and grew up in Vienna in an affluent, assimilated Jewish family. She wowed the judges not only with the song, but also her personal story. Wearing a long, red evening dress, she performed “Trümmer” (Rubble). Since Ginsberg holds Swiss citizenship, she decided to appear on the Swiss reality television show that determines the country’s Eurovision entry. The multi-generational new band decided to come up with a number with which to compete for a spot in the Eurovision song contest. The nonagenarian’s unlikely foray into heavy metal evolved after meeting some young musicians a few years ago in New York. It comes from the universe down to me and I write it down. You can’t order poetry, you can’t make it. Heavy metal is not really poems, it’s messages,” Ginsberg asserted in her Central European-accented English. “The important thing in heavy metal is the text. She focuses on messages she thinks are important, like taking care of the environment and not destroying the Earth, staying true to yourself, and spreading love rather than hate. Although she has many of her already existing rhythmic works to fall back on (including some from published collections), she always writes fresh material for every recording session. The world is evidently curious about this Jewish grandmother who screams into the microphone in English and German while wearing pearls and an evening gown.Ī prolific poet, Ginsberg writes all her own songs. Four videos of the band’s performances, along with a New York Times op-doc short film about Ginsberg, have racked up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Speaking to The Times of Israel in her central Tel Aviv apartment, Ginsberg seemed extremely pleased with the attention her highly unusual gig as front woman for Inge & the TritoneKings has brought her.