
Auschwitz Birkenau’s Nazi extinction camp was released by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945. Jewish teenager Anita Lasker was able to survive there just because the camp orchestra needed a cello player.
The 99 -year -old Anita Ruscar Walfish is the last survivor of Auschwitz women’s orchestra. At the age of 19, she was interviewed by the BBC on April 15, 1945. This is the day of the release of the Bergenber Sendes Camp, which was transferred six months ago. Interviewed in German, the language she grew up, she said: “First, I want to say a few words about Auschwitz. The survivors do not believe what happened there. I’m afraid of
Warning: This article contains the Holocaust’s graphic details
She continued: “When the transport arrived, the doctor and the commander were standing on the lamp, and the sort was done in front of us. This is the age of new arrival. Suspicion of a newcomer has tended to report the disease.
When she first arrived Auschwitz Her casual comments that she played a cello, an unload platform known as a lamp, was enough to change her life. “The music was played for the most terrible thing,” she said.
At that time, Anita Lascer barely spoke German to public for 50 years after World War II, but when she grew up, her hometown Breslau was part of Germany. Currently known VrootswafIt was part of Poland since the end of the war. Rascal’s mother Edis was a talented violinist, and her father, Alfons, was a successful lawyer. As the youngest of the three daughters, she grew up in a happy house encouraged music and other cultural pursuit. She wanted to be a cellist when she was young, but outside the sanctuary of her family’s house, the dark troops were stirring.
She remembered in A BBC TV documentary 1996: “We were a typical assimilated German and Jewish family. We went to a small private school. Suddenly, don’t give a sponge on the Jews.”
By 1938, Rascal’s parents could not find cello tutors in Bracelau, a Jewish child, because anti -Jewishism was established in Nazi Germany. She was sent to Berlin for studying, but had to hurry to her parents after the murder and the night of the turbulence. On November 9, 1938, the Nazi destroyed the windows of homes, companies, and synagogue, causing the insidious persecution of the Jews to be violent. KristallNacht Or “cracked glass night”.
Returning home, Rascal’s parents continued to plant culture love because no one could take it from us. Her eldest son, Marianne, fled in 1939 KindertransportThe mission of taking thousands of children in the UK just before the war. By 1942, her father was still discussing sophisticated works such as Anita and Sister’s tragic play, Don Carlos, with a tragic play of Anita and sister. Ta. But she said, “It was clear what would happen.”
Arrived in hell
In April 1942, a terrifying order was arrived in which parents reported to a specific location within 24 hours. “We walked through the bracelau to this specific point, not just parents, but said goodbye. What when my parents became their parents. I have already understood the luxury of emotions.
Anita and Renate were sent to the Jewish orphanage, but they immediately Hatch’s plans to escape from Nazi Germany. On the way to the vacant France, they set out with two friends to clutch the forged paper at BRESLAU Railway Station. The plan failed, and they were arrested by Gestapo officers, the Nazi secret police. Anita served in a prison for about 18 months for a forgery charges, supported the enemy, and tried to escape, at least she was relatively safe. “Prison is not a comfortable place, but not a concentration camp,” she said. “No one will kill you in prison.”
In 1943, the remaining Jews were relocated to the concentration camp due to the overcrowding of Breslau prison. Anita was placed on a train transported to Auschwitz, and the rene was sent two weeks later. Anita arrived at the camp at night to find a terrible scene. In hell, really. ”
When she arrived, she was tattooed by a prisoner of Auschwitz, who was eager to all news about the war. “I can’t say much because I’ve been in prison for a long time,” he said casually. And this girl said, “Oh, it’s very good. You might be saved.” I couldn’t believe the situation, I was naked, I had a lot in my arms, And I had this ridiculous conversation. A member of the famous female orchestra. “
Alma Rose was a composer Gustav Mahler NIE, but his father was the Leader of Vienna Philharmonic. According to Ruscar, the violinist ran a camping orchestra with a terrible professionalism. 。 “
The orchestra played a limited repertoire of military music using instruments stolen by other people who were brought to the camp. “Our job was to march for a column where they worked outside the camp when they marched.
Talk about BBC Radio 4 Dessert Island Disc In 1996, Rusker said that Rose had set a “very high standard” but did not think it would be because she could not play well. “It was somehow escaped to outstanding,” she said. “For some reason, you agree that they are finally trying to get you, but they don’t have you, but you just continue. I am a survival ingredient. I think one was with other people.
From Ashwitz to Bersen
Rose did not survive the war in April 1944 on the suspicion of Botulinusum. The rasker states as follows. Human members. “
The music stopped in October 1944 when a woman was transferred to Bersen, a concentration camp with no orchestra. The conditions were so terrible that they could not imagine. The rasker states as follows. “It was not actually an extinct camp. It was a camp where people died. There was no gas room and there was no need for a gas room.
Liberation of Bersen [InApril1945theBritisharmysavedherlife”Ithinkit’sanotherweekbutIdidn’thaveanyfoodorwatersoIprobablydidn’tmakeit”shesaid[1945年4月のイギリス軍によって彼女の命を救いました。「私はもう一週間だと思いますが、食べ物も水も残っていなかったので、おそらくそれを作っていなかっただろう」と彼女は言った。
After the war, Anita and Renate contacted British sister Marianne, and in 1946 they both settled in the UK. Renate worked as an author and journalist and moved to France with her husband in 1982. She died in 2021 as a shy 97th birthday. The eldest son, Marianne, who was safely taken at KinderTransport, died immediately after the war. “This is the sarcastic of fate,” she said I told the Guardian 2005.
Anita pursued a career as a successful musician and became the founder of the English chamber orchestra. When she visited Paris, she contacted me Peter WalfishPiano student, a fellow refugee who has remembered Beslau since he was a student. They were married in 1952 and had two children, cello players. Rafael And psychotherapist Mayan。 Ruscar and her husband communicated with each other with a “complete language of the language”, but she acknowledged that “I would have been impossible to speak German to my child.”
For decades, she never pledged to step into the soil in Germany. With the passage of time, she relieved her stance and was invited to Berlin by 2018 We will deal with politicians In the German parliament Bundesestag. She said: “As you see, I broke my oath many years ago -and I didn’t regret it. It’s very simple: hatred is poisonous. Poison yourself. “
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com