Miklós Lorsi

Who is Miklós Lorsi?

Miklós Lorsi was a Jewish Hungarian violinist who was killed during the Holocaust. The manner of his death, and allusion to his art as a violinist formed the line "already taut, a string about to snap" in the last poem of Miklós Radnóti.

During October 1944 Lorsi was part of a 3,200 person death march. At one point during the march the SS ordered everyone to lie down, and then began shooting randomly. Lorsi was shot, and when they were ordered to continue marching, Lorsi was bleeding and having difficulty walking. While he was being helped along by his friend Miklós Radnóti, an SS officer shot Lorsi in the back of the neck, killing him. The poem touches on the violinists art and compares his death to the death of his violin. Radnóti himself was killed shortly afterwards.