Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

The girl orchestra of Auschwitz was a prisoner orchestra at Auschwitz -Birkenau. It was compiled by order of the SS from the Polish music teacher Zofia Czajkowska in June 1943. As early as January 1941, there were also several men Orchestra of Auschwitz.

  • 3.1 female conductors
  • 3.2 more members
  • 4.1 movie
  • Opera 4.2
  • 4.3 Literature
  • 4.4 External links
  • 4.5 Notes and references

General

The members were female prisoners who were saved by the inclusion in the gas chambers into the orchestra from extermination through work and before death. Conductor of the orchestra was from 1943 and April 1944 Alma Rosé, the niece of the composer Gustav Mahler. The brutal and music-loving SS Oberaufseherin Maria Mandl, since October 1942 unofficial leader of the women's camp at Auschwitz -Birkenau, was a supporter of the orchestra. It endorsed the establishment of a special hut (storage section BI b close to the barbed wire fence ) for the musicians. The block was numbered 12, from the autumn of 1943 number 7 In the barracks there was a lined with wood planks floor and a furnace to protect the instruments from moisture. Josef Kramer, since May 1944 camp commander wanted, above all, that the work commandos marched in lockstep, accompanied by the girl orchestra. Even an orchestra worked well when SS sizes visited the camp.

The musicians had to repeatedly also give private concerts. For example, let Josef Mengele, a lover of classical music, play it more often. Anita Lasker -Wallfisch, a cellist, had Mengele regularly perform Schumann's reverie, as he so enjoyed listening to this piece. On a Sunday, the orchestra had to occur together with a Liliputzirkus. The little people trusted the SS doctor who joked with them and then himself led into the gas chamber. Also, Kramer insisted on special events. Fania Fénelon described such a situation as a runner caught the door pushed open and shouted:

"Caution! Girls, fast! Commander Kramer is coming! Frozen in an impressive Stillgestanden we expect Kramer. He enters, accompanied by two SS officers ... He goes to the conditions laid down for this purpose chairs, sits down, takes off the cap and places it next to him there ... still standing at attention, as it should be when an officer speaks, Alma asks anxiously: What would hear the Lord camp leader? - The reverie of Schumann. And very emotional, he adds: This is an admirable piece that goes to the heart .... Relaxed raises the camp leader his head and tells: How beautiful, how exciting "

Again and again diseased many musicians from diarrhea, edema, tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid, diphtheria, malaria, etc. If the disease was not contagious, the patient was not transferred to the camp hospital. But a musician was rushed to the hospital, she stopped by the selections of the SS usually spared.

The history of the orchestra was processed in novels, documentaries and films as well as an opera.

Operations of the orchestra

A and Ausmarsch

The orchestra played at the gate, when the labor gangs off and marched. In summer, the work columns advanced from 5-6 clock and came back against 20 clock. In winter, they marched from 7-8 clock and came back 17 against clock.

Legend: At the ramp

  • Assertion ( source unknown): Even if the deportation trains arrived with Jewish people from all over Europe, had the orchestra play. The new arrivals were to be lulled into security to allow them to recoup without suspicion and would go without a fight to the death in the nearby gas chambers. While transports arrived, however, prevailed in the control block lock for the whole camp.
  • This assertion is true Esther Bejarano to.
  • Fania Fénelon denies in her book that the orchestra had to play the selections, and calls it a legend.
  • Also, Anita Lasker -Wallfisch contradicts the assertion that the orchestra had to play at the ramp. Since the block in which the orchestra was housed, was close to the tracks, but it is plausible that the new arrivals have heard the orchestra in rehearsal.
  • In the book by Fania Fenelon says, " Since the dawn is block lock. For five hours, all doors are locked in the camp, even with us. Only the door of the music room must remain open. Can people from the trains listen to our music? Probably every now and then scraps of melody, they sometimes look over at us. "

Sunday concerts

On Sundays, concerts were given for the SS personnel at various locations.

Ensemble

Women conductors

Other members

  • Margot Anzenbacher ( Wtrovcova ), Jewish Czech
  • Lili Assael, accordion and bass, Jewish Greek
  • Yvette Maria Assael ( Lennon), accordion, piano and bass Jewish Greek
  • Rivka Bacia (Regina Kuperberg ), Jewish Polish woman
  • Ruth Baruch, guitar and mandolin, Polin
  • Ruth Bassin, Jewish German (No. 41883 )
  • Esther Bejarano, accordion
  • Mary Bielicka, singer, Polin
  • Fanny birch forest, mandolin, Jewish Belgian
  • Clara, French singer ( old)
  • Zofia Cykowiak violin (No. 44327 )
  • Henryka Czapla, violin, Polin
  • Henryka Galazka, violin, Polin
  • Helena Dunicz - Niwinska, Polin (No. 64118 )
  • Fania Fénelon, piano and vocals, Frenchwoman (No. 74862 )
  • Florette, violinist, Belgian
  • Violette Jaquet- Silberstein, coming from a Hungarian Jewish family, was born in Romania violin player, Frenchwoman (No. 51937 )
  • Casimire Maly Kaowalczyk, mandolin and interpretation, Polin (No. 48295 )
  • Haningya [ sic] Kleifka -Wick, xylophone, Polin
  • Jadwiga ( Danuta, Danka ) Kollakowa
  • Mary Kroner, Cello, German
  • Lola Kroner, Flute, German
  • Regina Kupferberg, interpretation, Polin (No. 51095 )
  • Rivka Kupferberg ( Bacia ), Polin
  • Irena Lagowska, violin, Polin (No. 49995 )
  • Mary Langenfeld - Hnydowa, violin, Polin (No. 42873 )
  • Anita Lasker -Wallfisch, cello, German
  • Lotte Lebedova, singer, Jewish Czech
  • Lily Máthé, violin, Jewish Hungarian
  • Elsa Miller, violin, Jewish German
  • Maria Mos - Wdowik, mandolin and interpretation, Polin (No. 6111 )
  • Rachela Olewski, guitar and mandolin, Jewish Polish (No. 6874 )
  • Masza Pietrkowska, mandolin, Jewish Polish woman
  • Hélène Rounder, violin and interpretation, Jewish Frenchwoman
  • Hélène Scheps violin, Belgian
  • Helga Schiessel, drums, Jewish German
  • Ewa Stojowska, piano and vocals, Polin (No. 64098 )
  • Hélène Scheps, violin, Jewish Belgian
  • Rhejnhardya Schgaethjain, Plucked, Romanian
  • Philippa Schleuterstein, last lived in Neumünster and Kiel, Chanting
  • Flora Schrijver Jacobs, accordion, Jewish Dutch (No. 61278 )
  • Helen ( Zippy ) Spitzer Tychy, mandolin, Jewish Czech ( 2286 )
  • Eva Steiner, singing, Transylvanian ( No. A- 17139 )
  • Madam Steiner, mother of Eva, violin, Transylvanian
  • Julie Stroumsa, violin, Jewish Greek
  • Margita Švalbova, Czech
  • Clara Wagensberg / Tamar Berger, born December 1, 1923 ( Dessau ), † 1993 in Haifa (Haifa, Israel), German, flutist
  • Sylvia Wagensberg / Schulamith Khalef, * June 11, 1928 (Dessau ), † August 15, 2003 (Tel Aviv, Israel), German, flutist
  • Irena Walaszczyk Wachowicz, mandolin, Polin (No. 43575 )
  • Sonia Vinogradova, piano and interpretation, Russian
  • Jadwiga ( Wisha ) Zatorska, violin, Polin (No. 36243 )
  • Rachela Zelmanowicz ( Olewski )]], mandolin, Jewish Polish woman
  • Hilde Grünbaum Zimke, interpretation, Jewish German

Today ( as of 2011) are Esther Bejarano, Hilde Grunbaum ( Simcha ), Rivka Kupferberg ( Bacia ), Helena Dunicz - Niwinska, and Anita Lasker -Wallfisch the last survivors of the Girl orchestra.

Media

  • Esther Bejarano, 51'34 minutes in conversation with Silke Behl. January 22, 2002 Nordwestradio
  • Radio play " The Wooden Shoes" broadcast recording of 24 January 2002

Film

  • Esther Bejarano and the girl orchestra of Auschwitz, film by Christel Priemer 1992
  • Playing for Time - game time - The girl orchestra in Auschwitz, Movie USA 1980, with Vanessa Redgrave as Fania Fénelon

Opera

  • Stefan Heucke: The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz - Music theater in three acts, first performance Mönchengladbach 2006 - Schott Music, Mainz
Extermination through labor Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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