Lecturer: Anne Sebba
In 1943, the German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Forty-seven women and girls were drafted into a hurriedly-assembled band that would play to other inmates as they left each morning and as they returned at the end of the day. They were made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and members were sometimes summoned to give individual performances of an officer’s favourite piece of music. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, the orchestra was to save their lives.
