The Musicians of Auschwitz

When Fania Fenelon was deported to Auschwitz, to the women's concentration camp of Birkenau, prospects were grim for her as they were for all people of Jewish blood. Only the strongest were able to survive - unless, like Fania, they were musical enough to find a place in the camp orchestra. The women's orchestra had been founded by the music-loving camp commandant. Its make-up was as extraordinary as its existence: ten violins, a flute, reed pipes, two accordions, three guitars, five mandolins, percussion and cymbals. No composer had ever envisaged such a combination, but with Mahler's niece conducting, and Fania's orchestration, they performed works by Puccini, Strauss, and Beethoven - even the forbidden Mendelssohn. They played marches for the work details, and for those about to be gassed; they gave concerts for the sinister Dr. Mengele and Heinrich Himmler. Fania Fenelon's story is a remarkable one - horrifying yet no hopeless because through all the hardships the girls of the orchestra lived, could laugh, and somehow survived. When she was transferred to Belsen, Fania slept in a tent only a few yards from Anne Frank; they shared the same indomitable courage and will to live, and Fania's memoirs are as haunting as "The Diary of Anne Frank".