‘It was an escape into excellence’: How music saved the life of a teenage Jewish cellist in Auschwitz

When I first arrived Auschwitz On the unloading platform known as the Ramp, her casual comment that she played the cello was enough to change the direction of her life. “Music was played to accompany the most terrible things,” she said.

Anita Lasker barely spoke German in public again for 50 years after World War II, but when she was growing up, her hometown of Breslau was part of Germany. Now known as WroclawIt has been part of Poland since the end of the war. Lasker’s mother, Edith, was a talented violinist and her father, Alphonse, was a successful lawyer. As the youngest of three daughters, she grew up in a happy home where music and other cultural activities were encouraged. She knew at an early age that she wanted to be a cellist, but outside the sanctuary of her family home, dark forces were at work.

I remembered on BBC TV documentary In 1996: “We were a typical integrated German Jewish family. We went to a small private school, and suddenly I heard: ‘Don’t give the Jew the sponge,’ and I thought: ‘What’s all this about?’”

By 1938, with anti-Semitism rampant in Nazi Germany, Lasker’s parents were unable to find a cello teacher in Breslau who could teach a Jewish child. She was sent to Berlin to study, but was forced to return to her parents after a night of murder and mayhem. On November 9, 1938, the virulent persecution of the Jewish people turned violent when the Nazis smashed the windows of homes, businesses and synagogues in the city. Kristallnacht Or “Night of Broken Glass.”

Back home, Lasker’s parents continued to instill a love of culture in their children, as “no one can take that away from us.” Her older sister, Marianne, eloped in 1939 on the highway Transporting childrenthe mission that transported thousands of children to safety in Britain just before the war. By 1942, even when “the world was falling apart,” her father still invited Anita and her sister Renate to discuss cutting-edge works such as Friedrich Schiller’s tragic play Don Carlos. But she added, “It was clear what was going to happen.”

Getting to hell

In April 1942, her parents were given the dreaded order to go to a certain place within 24 hours. “We walked through Breslau, not just my parents but a whole line of people, to this very point and said goodbye. That was the end. It was only when I became a parent that I understood what my parents had gone through. By then, one had already begun to repress the luxury of feeling. “

Anita and Renate are sent to a Jewish orphanage, but they soon hatch a plan to escape Nazi Germany. Posing as women on their way home to unoccupied France, they set off with two friends for Breslau railway station carrying false papers. The plan failed and they were arrested by Gestapo officers, the Nazi secret police force. Anita spent about 18 months in prison on charges of forgery, aiding the enemy, and attempted escape, but at least she was relatively safe there. “Prison is not a nice place to live, but it is not a concentration camp,” she said. “Nobody kills you in prison.”

In 1943, due to overcrowding in Breslau prison, all remaining Jews were transferred to concentration camps. Anita was put on a train to be transported to Auschwitz, and Renate was sent two weeks later. Anita arrived at the camp at night to find a terrible scene: “I remember it being very loud and completely bewildering. You had no idea where you were. There were dogs banging, people screaming, a terrible smell… It arrived.” In hell, really.”

Upon her arrival, she was painted, tattooed and shaved by Auschwitz prisoners who were eager for any news of the war. “I said, ‘Look, I can’t tell you much because I was in prison for a long time,’ and I casually mentioned that I play the cello. And this girl said, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good.’” You may be saved. “It was unbelievable. I was really naked, I had no hair, I had a number on my arm, and I was having this ridiculous conversation with a member of a famous women’s orchestra.”