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"Former concert pianist Alice Herz-Sommer is living proof of the power of music. The world's oldest Holocaust survivor, who celebrates her 107th birthday today, endured the deprivations of the Prague ghetto, imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and the murder of her husband, mother and countless other family members. Only her love of music, she says, sustained her throughout those years of darkness and heartbreak.

While her tale of survival is astonishing, what's perhaps more remarkable is that, despite seeing humanity at its worst, Sommer remains a fierce optimist and a believer in the fundamental goodness of mankind. 'This is the reason I am so old, even now, I am sure. I know about the bad things, but I look only for the good things. The world is wonderful, it's full of beauty and miracles, art and music.'

As for her own long life, Sommer partly puts this down to diet -- she eats chicken stew most days, and doesn't touch coffee, tea or alcohol -- and to her strict piano-playing routine. But there is a more important factor. 'In a word: optimism. I look at the good. When you are relaxed, your body is always relaxed, When you are pessimistic, your body behaves in an unnatural way. It is up to us whether we look at the good or the bad. When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. When you give, you receive.'" - AOL News

"Dancing Under the Gallows" a film about Alice, is soon to be released.

To read more about this remarkable woman, go here.