The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz was formed by order of the SS in 1943, during the Holocaust, in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. Active for 19 months—from April 1943 until October 1944—the orchestra consisted of mostly young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners, of varying nationalities, who would rehearse for up to ten hours a day to play music regarded as helpful in the daily running of the camp. They also held a concert every Sunday for the SS. A member of the orchestra, Fania Fénelon, published her experiences in an autobiography, Sursis pour l'orchestre, which appeared in English as Playing for Time. The book was the basis of a television film of the same name in 1980, written by Arthur Miller.
Formation
The orchestra was formed in April 1943 by SS-OberaufseherinMaria Mandel, supervisor of the women's camp in Auschwitz, and SS-HauptsturmfuhrerFranz Hössler, the women's camp commandant. The Germans wanted a propaganda tool for visitors and camp newsreels and a tool to boost camp morale. Led at first by a Polish music teacher, Zofia Czajkowska, the orchestra remained small until Jews were admitted in May 1943. Its members came from many countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine. According to professor of music Susan Eischeid, the orchestra had 20 members by June 1943; by 1944 it had 42–47 players and 3–4 musical copyists. Its primary role was to play at the gate of the women's camp when the work gangs left and returned. They might also play during "selection" and in the infirmary.
Conductors
The first conductor, Zofia Czajkowska, a Polish music teacher, was active from April 1943 until she was replaced by Alma Rosé, an Austrian-Jewish violinist, in August that year. The daughter of Arnold Rosé, leader of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and niece of Gustav Mahler, Rosé had been the conductor of the Wiener Walzermädeln, a small orchestra in Vienna, and had arrived in Auschwitz from the Drancy internment camp in Paris. By January 1944, the orchestra had 47 members, including five singers. Rosé died suddenly on 5 April 1944, possibly from food poisoning, after having dinner with a kapo. The third conductor was Sonia Winogradowa, a Ukrainian pianist. For several reasons, including reduced rehearsal time and Winogradowa's lack of experience, the orchestra's performance declined. It stopped performing in October 1944.
Move to Bergen-Belsen
On 1 November 1944, the Jewish members of the women's orchestra were evacuated by cattle car to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where there was neither orchestra nor special privileges. Three members, Lola Kroner, Julie Stroumsa and Else, died there. On 18 January 1945, non-Jewish women in the orchestra, including several Poles, were evacuated to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Fénelon was interviewed by the BBC on 15 April 1945, the day of Bergen-Belsen's liberation by British troops, and sang "La Marseillaise" and "God Save the King".
Books
The best known publication about the orchestra is Fania Fénelon's memoir, Playing for Time, first published in Paris as Sursis pour l'orchestre. The memoir and subsequent TV adaptation assumed an important place in Holocaust scholarship. This was a source of frustration to other survivors of the orchestra, who disagreed with Fénelon's representation of the orchestra, particularly her portrayal of Alma Rosé and several other musicians, and the diminishment by Fénelon of their bond and support for one another. Fénelon presents Rosé as a cruel disciplinarian and self-hating Jew who admired the Nazis and courted their favor. A biography, Alma Rosé: From Vienna to Auschwitz, by Rosé family friend Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley, presents a different picture.
