US group re-creates Nazi death camp orchestra
Now, an American chorus and orchestra is paying tribute to those musicians with concerts in the U.S. and Germany titled "Music in Desperate Times: Remembering The Women's Orchestra of Birkenau."
On Saturday, Ars Choralis will play at Manhattan's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, whose Episcopal bishop had spoken against the persecution of Jews in Europe already in 1933.
During the 18 months the Birkenau orchestra existed, its musicians played pieces the German officers loved — Beethoven symphonies, Puccini arias, Chopin and Strauss waltzes. The women also had to play marches for emaciated, often sick prisoners as they struggled to walk to their forced labor jobs.
When the Vienna-born Rose (pronounced roh-ZAY') was sent to the camp, the SS guards realized she was Mahler's relative and had conducted an all-women's orchestra. She was asked to form one at Birkenau, for the pleasure of the Nazis.
With the orchestra, Rose saved more than 50 women, including Fenelon, who died in 1983; three are still alive.
Exactly what killed the great composer's niece remains a mystery. A document signed by Josef Mengele on April 4, 1944, shows that the Nazi SS physician who performed experiments on prisoners was summoned to a special private room where Rose lay, slipping in and out of consciousness from an undiagnosed illness. Mengele signed a form requesting medical tests for meningitis and pneumonia that came out negative.
Rose died the next day, her arms twisted in seizures. She was respectfully laid out atop a white cloth, with floral tributes sent by SS officers, according to Fenelon's book.
comments powered by Disqus
Thaddeus Brodrick Noble - 4/6/2009
You mean to tell me that someone actually survived a German detention camp !! This is a monumental discovery !!
You do realize that will have to bring the total down to 5,999,999.
No more 6 million propaganda allowed now !!
- Judith Kelleher Schafer, 72, a historian of slavery and prostitution, dies
- Northwestern celebrates Garry Wills with a book in his honor
- Conservatives go after UCLA's historian James Gelvin
- Laura Hillenbrand writes her masterpieces despite suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- New PBS DVD From Henry Louis Gates Jr. Explores African Influence on the Caribbean