Das Frauenorchester von Auschwitz

Music as a form of compulsory labour – music as a life-saver: In the years 1943/44, the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau had a women’s orchestra consisting of pr ofessional and amateur musicians from different European countries. The conductor was the then world-famous violinist Alma Rosé, niece of the composer Gustav Mahler. The orchestra had to play when prisoners arrived at the camp but also at so-called selections, in the Hospital and Experimental Blocks. For the entertainment of the SS camp personnel and the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele, the orchestra gave concerts with works by Schubert, Schumann, Puccini, Suppé and Strauß. Although the women literally played for their life, they were at the same time among the ‘privileged’ prisoners of the camp. Some o f them survived, among them Fania Fénelon, a Jewish singer from Paris. She died in France in 1983, leaving an autobiographical novel which describes the desperate fight against the musicians’ fear of death.

Based on motives of this novel, Stefan Heucke composed his opera Das Frauenorchester von Auschwitz, the libretto was written by Clemens Heucke. The composer looks into the feelings, emotions and behaviour of people who were forced to make music while facing death.

- Slightly abridged text from the programme of the Krefeld-Mönchengladbach theatre