What role could music possibly play in a death camp? In 1943, 50 female inmates were conscripted into an orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Amid unimaginable brutality, they performed for both exhausted forced labourers and their Nazi captors—a harrowing existence that, nonetheless, saved nearly all their lives.
Award-winning historian Anne Sebba brings this extraordinary story to light, drawing on meticulous research and exclusive first-hand accounts. From conductor Alma Rosé, niece of Gustav Mahler, to the orchestra’s last surviving member, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Sebba unravels the astonishing tale of the musicians, their resilience, and the complex responses of fellow prisoners. In conversation with New York Times best-selling author of When Time Stopped, Ariana Neumann.
An event from Jewish Book Week 2025
