Editing Adolph Baller (section)

==Early years==
Baller was born July 30, 1909, in [[Brody]], which at the time was in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian empire]] and is now in western [[Ukraine]]. At age 8, he went to [[Vienna]] to study piano with a former student of [[Franz Liszt]]. When he was 13 he gave his first solo performance, with the [[Vienna Philharmonic]], following it with performances in all major European capitals.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://news.stanford.edu/pr/94/940125Arc4484.html|title=Pianist Adolph Baller dies at 84|date=25 January 1994|work=Stanford University News Service|access-date=29 January 2019|archive-date=6 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160606095655/https://news.stanford.edu/pr/94/940125Arc4484.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In March 1938, Nazi soldiers learned that he was a pianist and a Jew. They arrested him, beat him and crushed his hands. Baller's fiancée, Edith Strauss-Neustadt, interceded on his behalf with the Polish Consul in Vienna and helped to restore his hands through a long treatment so that he could resume his career. The couple escaped to [[Budapest]], where they were married before coming to the United States in 1938.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/listings/1997_Nov_7.2NDART07.html|title=Remembering Adolph Baller the way he'd want--with music|last=Smith|first=Kendra|date=7 November 1997|work=Palo Alto Online|access-date=29 January 2019}}</ref>