Girl orchestra of Auschwitz
Encyclopedia
The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz or Girls' Orchestra of Auschwitz was a female orchestra
at Auschwitz concentration camp
created in June 1943 by a Polish music teacher, Mrs. Zofia Czajkowska, by order of the SS. The members were prisoner girls, whose membership in the orchestra protected them from being gassed in the gas chamber and from being worked to death. Czajkowska was eventually replaced as conductor by Alma Rosé
, the daughter of Gustav Mahler
's sister Justine and of Arnold Rosé
. Rosé had been the conductor of a women's orchestra in her hometown of Vienna
.
The orchestra played at the gate when the work gangs went out, and when they returned. During the final stages of the Holocaust, when the mass deportations of Jews from Eastern Europe occurred and large numbers of Jews were sent directly to the gas chambers, the orchestra played in order to put the minds of the victims at ease. The music preserved the illusion that the Jews were being transported "to the East", and allowed the SS to kill more efficiently. Fania Fénelon
denies, in her book, the claim that the orchestra had to play certain specific selections, and calls this a myth. However, she recorded concerts for the SS, and reported that Maria Mandel
was particularly fond of her rendition of Madame Butterfly.
On November 1, 1944 the women's orchestra were force-marched to Bergen-Belsen
where was neither orchestra nor special privileges.
's vivid novel-memoir, "Playing for Time" (an English translation of "Sursis pour l'orchestre"). Though there is no doubting Fénelon's skill as a writer and her unsparing analysis of the concentration camp experience, many of the surviving members of the orchestra took issue with her portrayal of Alma Rosé, who appeared in Fénelon's memoir as a cruel disciplinarian and self-hating Jew who admired the Nazis and courted their favor. A recent biography of Rosé, "Alma Rosé: From Vienna to Auschwitz," by Rosé family friend Richard Newman
and Karen Kirtley, strives to present a different picture of the orchestra leader. It corrects several errors in Fénelon's account (Rosé was Austrian, not German) and subtler biases: Fénelon, for instance, was never the leader of the orchestra. As a Parisian of socialist sympathies, divorced, active in the Resistance, and formerly a student of Germaine Martinelli, she was considerably more experienced and sophisticated than most of the teenaged girls in the orchestra, to whose immaturity she condescended; but there was never any doubt that Rosé was their leader. Nor, according to Newman and Kirtley, did Fénelon's and the other Jewish women's mistrust of the Christian Poles in the orchestra entirely reflect the truth: not all the Poles were anti-Semitic. But most significantly, Rosé emerges in her biography as a heroine who saved the lives of nearly all the women in her care by forcing them to work their hardest even if they were marginally talented, though her dramatic temperament and her egotism do not go unremarked.
Other potential sources of controversy were represented by Fénelon's novelistic rendering of her experience, with reconstructed conversations and thinly veiled name changes (Violette Jacquet became "Florette," Hélène Scheps and Hélène Rounder both became "Irene," Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
was "Marta," and Fanny Birkenwald was "Anny"), and her frank treatment of both prostitution and lesbianism in the camps, with several alleged lesbian liaisons between orchestra members (toward which Fénelon was compassionate). Both the English and the German translations of her memoir were slightly abridged in respect to this last matter.
Rosé died in 1944 of unknown causes; poisoning was suspected by Fénelon and others, but according to Newman and Kirtley the cause was likely to be either botulism or typhus. After Rosé the orchestra was conducted haphazardly by Sonia Vinogradovna, a Russian prisoner, but in January 1945 Auschwitz was dismantled by the Nazis and the orchestra was sent to Bergen-Belsen
. Two members, Lola Kroner and Julie Stroumsa, died there. The rest survived, though Ewa Stojowska was badly beaten and Fania Fénelon nearly died of typhus. Fénelon wrote that the orchestra was scheduled to be shot to death on the same day as the liberation by British troops. She was interviewed by the BBC on the day of liberation and performed "La Marseillaise" and "God Save the King."
As of 2005, Esther Bejarano
, Violette Jacquet, Hilde Simha, Rivka Bacia (Regina Kuperberg), Masza Pietrkowska (died 1/1/09), Yvette Maria Assael-Lennon (died 7.2008) and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
are known to be among the last living survivors of the girl orchestra.
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
at Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
created in June 1943 by a Polish music teacher, Mrs. Zofia Czajkowska, by order of the SS. The members were prisoner girls, whose membership in the orchestra protected them from being gassed in the gas chamber and from being worked to death. Czajkowska was eventually replaced as conductor by Alma Rosé
Alma Rosé
Alma Rosé was an Austrian violinist of Jewish descent. Her uncle was the composer Gustav Mahler. Alma Rosé was deported by the Nazis to the infamous concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. There she directed an orchestra of terrified prisoners who played to their captors in order that they...
, the daughter of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's sister Justine and of Arnold Rosé
Arnold Rosé
Arnold Josef Rosé was a Romanian-born Austrian Jewish violinist. He was leader of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for over half a century. He worked closely with Brahms. Gustav Mahler was his brother-in-law...
. Rosé had been the conductor of a women's orchestra in her hometown of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
.
The orchestra played at the gate when the work gangs went out, and when they returned. During the final stages of the Holocaust, when the mass deportations of Jews from Eastern Europe occurred and large numbers of Jews were sent directly to the gas chambers, the orchestra played in order to put the minds of the victims at ease. The music preserved the illusion that the Jews were being transported "to the East", and allowed the SS to kill more efficiently. Fania Fénelon
Fania Fénelon
Fania Fénelon was a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer.-Biography:...
denies, in her book, the claim that the orchestra had to play certain specific selections, and calls this a myth. However, she recorded concerts for the SS, and reported that Maria Mandel
Maria Mandel
Maria Mandel was an Austrian SS-Helferin infamous for her key role in The Holocaust as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where she is believed to have been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners.-Life:Mandel was born in Münzkirchen,...
was particularly fond of her rendition of Madame Butterfly.
On November 1, 1944 the women's orchestra were force-marched to Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen may refer to:* Stalag XI-C Bergen-Belsen , a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp* Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , on the site of the prisoner-of-war camp...
where was neither orchestra nor special privileges.
Drama and Novels
The history of the orchestra has been told in memoirs, documentaries and one docudrama. The best known documentation is Fania FénelonFania Fénelon
Fania Fénelon was a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer.-Biography:...
's vivid novel-memoir, "Playing for Time" (an English translation of "Sursis pour l'orchestre"). Though there is no doubting Fénelon's skill as a writer and her unsparing analysis of the concentration camp experience, many of the surviving members of the orchestra took issue with her portrayal of Alma Rosé, who appeared in Fénelon's memoir as a cruel disciplinarian and self-hating Jew who admired the Nazis and courted their favor. A recent biography of Rosé, "Alma Rosé: From Vienna to Auschwitz," by Rosé family friend Richard Newman
Richard Newman
Richard Newman is a voice actor with numerous voice roles in Transformers cartoons.-Career:Newman started his career in voice acting in Beast Wars voicing Rhinox and the Vok...
and Karen Kirtley, strives to present a different picture of the orchestra leader. It corrects several errors in Fénelon's account (Rosé was Austrian, not German) and subtler biases: Fénelon, for instance, was never the leader of the orchestra. As a Parisian of socialist sympathies, divorced, active in the Resistance, and formerly a student of Germaine Martinelli, she was considerably more experienced and sophisticated than most of the teenaged girls in the orchestra, to whose immaturity she condescended; but there was never any doubt that Rosé was their leader. Nor, according to Newman and Kirtley, did Fénelon's and the other Jewish women's mistrust of the Christian Poles in the orchestra entirely reflect the truth: not all the Poles were anti-Semitic. But most significantly, Rosé emerges in her biography as a heroine who saved the lives of nearly all the women in her care by forcing them to work their hardest even if they were marginally talented, though her dramatic temperament and her egotism do not go unremarked.
Other potential sources of controversy were represented by Fénelon's novelistic rendering of her experience, with reconstructed conversations and thinly veiled name changes (Violette Jacquet became "Florette," Hélène Scheps and Hélène Rounder both became "Irene," Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch is a German-born cellist of world renown and is a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra in Auschwitz....
was "Marta," and Fanny Birkenwald was "Anny"), and her frank treatment of both prostitution and lesbianism in the camps, with several alleged lesbian liaisons between orchestra members (toward which Fénelon was compassionate). Both the English and the German translations of her memoir were slightly abridged in respect to this last matter.
Rosé died in 1944 of unknown causes; poisoning was suspected by Fénelon and others, but according to Newman and Kirtley the cause was likely to be either botulism or typhus. After Rosé the orchestra was conducted haphazardly by Sonia Vinogradovna, a Russian prisoner, but in January 1945 Auschwitz was dismantled by the Nazis and the orchestra was sent to Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
. Two members, Lola Kroner and Julie Stroumsa, died there. The rest survived, though Ewa Stojowska was badly beaten and Fania Fénelon nearly died of typhus. Fénelon wrote that the orchestra was scheduled to be shot to death on the same day as the liberation by British troops. She was interviewed by the BBC on the day of liberation and performed "La Marseillaise" and "God Save the King."
Members of the orchestra
- Alma RoséAlma RoséAlma Rosé was an Austrian violinist of Jewish descent. Her uncle was the composer Gustav Mahler. Alma Rosé was deported by the Nazis to the infamous concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. There she directed an orchestra of terrified prisoners who played to their captors in order that they...
, conductor and violinist, Jewish, Austrian - Zofia Czajkowska, conductor, Polish
- Esther BejaranoEsther BéjaranoEsther Béjarano , Violette Jacquet, and Anita Lasker Wallfisch are among the last survivors of the Girl orchestra of Auschwitz.- Biography :...
, accordion, Jewish, German; still plays today with the group Coincidence — they play songs from the Ghetto, Jewish and anti-fascist songs - Fania FénelonFania FénelonFania Fénelon was a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer.-Biography:...
, piano and voice, Jewish, French - Ewa Stojowska, piano and voice, Polish
- Helena Dunicz Niwinska, Polish
- Zofia Cykowiak, violin and copyist, Polish
- Anita Lasker-WallfischAnita Lasker-WallfischAnita Lasker-Wallfisch is a German-born cellist of world renown and is a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra in Auschwitz....
, violoncello, Jewish, German - Hélène Scheps, violin, Jewish, Belgian
- Violette Jacquet, violin, Jewish, French, born in Romania; became a pop singer after the war
- Flora Schrijver, accordion, Jewish, Dutch
- Julie Stroumsa, violin, Jewish, Greek
- Fanny Birkenwald, mandolin, Jewish, Belgian
- Hélène Rounder, violin and copyist, Jewish, French
- Lily Máthé, violin, Jewish, Hungarian
- Eva Steiner, voice, Jewish, Hungarian
- Lola Kroner, flute, Jewish, German
- Elsa Miller, violin, Jewish, German
- Sonia Vinogradovna, piano, Russian
- Margot Anzenbacher (Wtrovcova), Jewish, Czech
- Lotte Lebeda, Jewish, Czech, voice
- Rachela Zelmanowicz (Olewski), mandolin, Jewish, Poland
- Masza Pietrkowska, mandolin, Jewish, Poland
- Hilde Grunbaum (Simha), notes copier, Jewish, German
- Rivka Bacia (Regina Kuperberg), Alma's maid (officially known as a notes copier), Jewish, Polish
- Helen Spitzer Tichauer, mandolin, Jewish, Czech
- Ruth Bassin, piccolo, Jewish, German
- Sylvia Wagenberg, recorder, Jewish, German
- Karla Wagenberg, recorder and piccolo, Jewish, German
- Yvette Maria Assael (Lennon), accordion, piano, double bass, Jewish, Greek
- Lily Assael, Jewish, Greek
As of 2005, Esther Bejarano
Esther Béjarano
Esther Béjarano , Violette Jacquet, and Anita Lasker Wallfisch are among the last survivors of the Girl orchestra of Auschwitz.- Biography :...
, Violette Jacquet, Hilde Simha, Rivka Bacia (Regina Kuperberg), Masza Pietrkowska (died 1/1/09), Yvette Maria Assael-Lennon (died 7.2008) and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch is a German-born cellist of world renown and is a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra in Auschwitz....
are known to be among the last living survivors of the girl orchestra.
Media
- Esther BejaranoEsther BéjaranoEsther Béjarano , Violette Jacquet, and Anita Lasker Wallfisch are among the last survivors of the Girl orchestra of Auschwitz.- Biography :...
- 51'34 minutes in the discussion with Silke Behl. 22 January 2002
- Northwest Radio See Links 1
- Radio play The Wooden Shoes
- Transmission cut from 24 January 2002 See Links 2
- Stage play "Playing For Time" available from Dramatic Publishing, written by Arthur MillerArthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
Films
- Esther Bejarano and the girl orchestra of Auschwitz Christel Priemer 1992
- Bach in Auschwitz Michel Daeron (2000)
- Playing for Time, Linda YellenLinda YellenLinda Yellen is an American director, producer and writer of film and television.As a producer some of her credits include Playing for Time , The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana and Second Serve .Some of her credits as a director include Northern Lights , The Simian Line , William & Catherine:...
1980, TV-movie based on Arthur Miller's stage adaptation; the source of much controversy for its choice of Vanessa RedgraveVanessa RedgraveVanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
, a PLO sympathizer, to play Fania Fénelon; Fénelon opposed the not-very-Jewish-looking Redgrave on the grounds that she was miscast as well as being anti-Israeli. Fénelon also was critical of the film's accuracy, citing an unrealistic degree of freedom among the prisoners. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch supported Redgrave. Alma Rosé was played by Jane AlexanderJane AlexanderJane Alexander is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed...
in a widely praised performance. The film is notable for a positive portrayal of a romantic relationship between two prisoners (played by Lenore Harris and Mady Kaplan), well ahead of its time.