Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

Company type	Forced labor musical ensemble
Industry	Music, Holocaust history
Founded	1943
Defunct	1944
Headquarters	Auschwitz II-Birkenau , German-occupied Poland
Area served	Auschwitz concentration camp
Key people	Zofia Czajkowska (founder and first conductor), Alma Rosé (second conductor), Sonia Winogradowa (third conductor), Fania Fénelon (member, pianist and vocalist)
Products	Musical performances for SS personnel and camp functions

Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz (Mädchenorchester von Auschwitz) was created by the SS in 1943 within the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp located in German-occupied Poland. Operating for a period of 19 months—from April 1943 until October 1944—the ensemble was primarily composed of young female Jewish and Slavic inmates from diverse national backgrounds. They dedicated up to ten hours daily to rehearsals, performing music deemed vital for the camp's daily functioning, which included weekly concerts aimed at entertaining the SS personnel.

Fania Fénelon, who was part of this orchestra, recounted her experiences in the 1976 memoir Sursis pour l'orchestre, later translated into English as Playing for Time (1977). This narrative served as the basis for the 1980 television movie with the same title, scripted by Arthur Miller.

Formation

The orchestra came into existence in April 1943 through the initiative of SS-Oberaufseherin Maria Mandl, overseer of the women's camp at Auschwitz, alongside SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Franz Hössler, who commanded the women's camp. The Nazi authorities intended to utilize the orchestra as a propaganda instrument for visitors and film crews, as well as to enhance morale within the camp. Initially directed by Polish music instructor Zofia Czajkowska, its ranks expanded after Jewish prisoners were incorporated in May 1943. The members originated from countries including Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, and the USSR.

Music scholar Susan Eischeid notes that by June 1943 the group consisted of 20 musicians; by 1944 it had grown to between 42 and 47 performers along with three to four music copyists. Their main duty involved playing—often for extended periods regardless of weather—at the entrance to the women's camp as labor details departed and returned. They also performed during prisoner "selection" sessions and inside the infirmary. Despite their musical responsibilities, members were still required to carry out regular labor tasks and endure harsh conditions, repeatedly performing a limited setlist.

Originally made up mostly of amateur players wielding string instruments, accordions, and a mandolin but lacking a bass section, the orchestra acquired instruments and sheet music from the men's orchestra at Auschwitz. Their musical selections were constrained by available scores, conductor expertise, and SS preferences, focusing on German march tunes alongside Polish folk and military melodies familiar to Czajkowska. Among the musicians were professionals such as cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and vocalist/pianist Fania Fénelon, both of whom later authored memoirs detailing their time in the orchestra.

Conductors

The orchestra’s initial leader was Zofia Czajkowska, a Polish music educator who directed from its founding in April 1943 until August that year when she was succeeded by Alma Rosé, an Austrian-Jewish violinist. Rosé was daughter of Arnold Rosé from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and niece of composer Gustav Mahler. Prior to her arrival at Auschwitz—transferred from the Drancy internment camp—she had conducted Vienna’s Wiener Walzermädeln orchestra. By January 1944, membership had reached 47 musicians including five vocalists. Rosé passed away suddenly on 5 April 1944, possibly due to food poisoning after sharing a meal with a kapo (a privileged inmate). She was followed by Ukrainian pianist Sonia Winogradowa as conductor. Under Winogradowa’s leadership and with reduced rehearsal time, the orchestra’s quality declined until it ultimately disbanded in October 1944.

Relocation to Bergen-Belsen

On 1 November 1944, Jewish members were transported by cattle car to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where no orchestra existed and no special privileges were granted. Among them, three individuals—Charlotte "Lola" Croner, Julie Stroumsa, and Else—were killed at this location. Subsequently, on 18 January 1945, non-Jewish women, including several Polish detainees, were transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp.<ref name=Lagerweyp28> On the day British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen, 15 April 1945, Fénelon gave an interview to the BBC during which she performed both "La Marseillaise" and "God Save the King".<ref>

Publications

The most widely recognized work is Fania Fénelon's memoir Playing for Time (1977), initially released in Paris under the title Sursis pour l'orchestre (1976). This memoir and its television adaptation hold considerable importance within Holocaust studies. However, some survivors expressed dissatisfaction with Fénelon's depiction of Alma Rosé and felt their mutual support was downplayed. Fénelon portrayed Rosé as a strict authoritarian who held admiration for Nazi figures. In contrast, Alma Rosé: From Vienna to Auschwitz (2000) by Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley provides a more balanced and detailed biography.

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the camp liberations in 2025, Anne Sebba authored The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival.

Roster of Members

Arranged alphabetically by birth name or first name when surname is unavailable.

Conductors

• Zofia Czajkowska, Polish music educator, served as the initial conductor until August 1943.
• Alma Rosé, Austrian violinist and second conductor, passed away on 5 April 1944.
• Sonia Winogradowa, Ukrainian copyist who played piano and sang; third conductor.

Musicians

• Margot Anzenbacher (later Větrovcová), guitar, Czech
• Lilly Assael, Jewish origin, Greek nationality
• Yvette Assael (later Lennon), Greek
• Stefania Baruch, music instructor specializing in guitar and mandolin
• Esther Lowey Béjarano (Sarah Weiss), pianist, vocalist, accordionist
• Zofia Cykowiak (Zocha Nowak), Polish
• Henryka Czapla, Polish
• Helena Dunicz-Niwińska (Halina Opielka), violinist from Poland; author of One of the Girls in the Band: The Memoirs of a Violinist from Birkenau (2014)
• Fania Fénelon, French pianist and singer; author of Sursis pour l'orchestre (1976)
• Henryka Gałązka, violinist from Poland
• Marta Goldstein
• Hilde Grünbaum
• Danuta Kollakowa, Polish drummer and pianist
• Fanny Kornblum (later Birkenwald)
• Marie Kroner (killed at Auschwitz)
• Regina Kupferberg (later Rivka Bacia), Jewish
• Irena Łagowska, Polish
• Maria Langenfeld, Polish
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (Marta Goldstein), Jewish cellist
• Lotta Lebedová, Jewish from Bohemia
• Kazimiera Małys
• Lily Mathé, Hungarian
• Elsa Miller (later Felstein), Belgian violinist of Jewish descent
• Claire Monis, French
• Maria Moś-Wdowik, Polish
• Hélène Rounder-Diatkin
• Hélène Scheps (Irène Szal)
• Helga Schiessel, German pianist of Jewish background
• Ruth Schiessel, German Jew
• Flora Schrijver-Jacobs
• Violette Jacquet Silberstein (Florette Fenet), Romanian-born Jewish violinist
• Helen Spitzer Tichauer
• Eva Steiner (Ewa Stern), Jewish singer from Transylvania [now Romania]
• Madam Steiner, Eva’s mother; Jewish violinist from Transylvania [now Romania]
• Ewa Stojowska, Polish
• Ioulia "Julie" Stroumsa, Greek Jew (killed in Bergen-Belsen)
• Szura, Ukrainian guitarist
• Carla Wagenberg (Tamar Berger), German Jew
• Sylvia Wagenberg, German Jew
• Irena Walaszczyk
• Jadwiga Zatorska, Polish violinist
• Rachela Zelmanowicz-Olewski, Jewish mandolin player from Poland

Further reading

External resources

• "The Girls in the Auschwitz Band". thegirlsintheauschwitz.band (information and band members).

Documentaries and Films

• Linda Yellen (1980). Playing for Time. A television adaptation based on Arthur Miller’s theatrical work.
• Christel Priemer (1992). Esther Bejarano and the Girl Orchestra of Auschwitz.
• Michel Daeron (2000). Bach in Auschwitz.

Literature

• Fania Fénelon and Marcelle Routier. Playing for Time. Translated by Judith Landry. Atheneum, New York, 1977. .
• Fania Fénelon and Marcelle Routier. Sursis pour l'orchestre. Co-published by Stock/Opera Mundi, Paris, 1976. .
• Esther Bejarano and Birgit Gärtner. Wir leben trotzdem. Esther Bejarano – Vom Mädchenorchester in Auschwitz zur Künstlerin für den Frieden. Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, Bonn, 2007.
• Esther Bejarano, Man nannte mich Krümel. Eine jüdische Jugend in den Zeiten der Verfolgung. Curio-Verlag, Hamburg, 1989.
• Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley, Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz. Amadeus Press, Portland, Oregon, 2000.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Inherit the Truth: A Memoir of Survival and the Holocaust. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2000.
• Gabriele Knapp, Das Frauenorchester in Auschwitz: Musikalische Zwangsarbeit und ihre Bewältigung. von Bockel Verlag, Hamburg, 1996.
• Violette Jacquet-Silberstein and Yves Pinguilly, Les sanglots longs des violons... Avoir dix-huit ans à Auschwitz. Éditions Oskarson, Paris, 2007.
• Jacques Stroumsa. Violinist in Auschwitz: From Salonica to Jerusalem 1913–1967. Translated by James Stewart Brice. Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Konstanz.
• Mirjam Verheijen. Het meisje met de accordeon: de overleving van Flora Schrijver in Auschwitz-Birkenau en Bergen-Belsen. Uitgeverij Scheffers, Utrecht, 1994.
• Rachela Zelmanowicz Olewski. Crying is Forbidden Here! A Jewish Girl in Pre-WWII Poland, The Women's Orchestra in Auschwitz and Liberation in Bergen-Belsen. Open University of Israel, 2009.
• Jean-Jacques Felstein. Dans l'orchestre d'Auschwitz – Le secret de ma mère. Auzas Éditions Imago, Paris, 2010.
• Bruno Giner. Survivre et mourir en musique dans les camps nazis. Éditions Berg International, 2011.
• Anne Sebba. The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival. (W&N, 2025)