From Publishers Weekly
Sharply etched memories animate this strong contribution to Holocaust literature. Lasker-Wallfisch, a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra, spent her happy early years in Breslau, Germany, but the persecution of Jews there escalated during the 1930s, as she documents with correspondence between family members and Marianne, one of her sisters, who had fled to England. When her parents were deported in 1942, Lasker-Wallfisch and her other sister, Renate, were sent to an orphanage. When they attempted to flee Germany for France, the two teenagers were imprisoned and later sent to Auschwitz--a place she describes in clear, chilling prose. Luck intervened: because she played the cello, Lasker-Wallfisch was permitted to join the camp orchestra that was made famous in the film Playing for Time, based on Fania F?nelon's memoir. The author takes issue here with F?nelon's portrayal of the women in the camp stealing food and betraying one another. Lasker-Wallfisch recalls that ill and starving musicians frequently shared bread, showed concern for one another and retained their humanity. When the orchestra was disbanded, the musicians were shipped to Bergen-Belsen. After liberation in 1945, Lasker-Wallfisch and Renate made their way to England. This story, as it promises, illustrates "how precariously thin the dividing line is between human integrity and barbarism." B&w illus. (Apr.) FYI: Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley Fania also challenge F?nelon's portrayal of the Auschwitz women's orchestra and its leader in Alma Ros?: Vienna to Auschwitz (Forecasts, Mar. 13).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The author was one of three daughters of middle-class assimilated Jews living in Breslau, Germany. The family's attempts to arrange emigration before the outbreak of World War II failed, except for an older sister who fled to England. In 1942 Lasker-Wallfisch's parents and other relatives were deported; the author and another sister were sent to an orphanage. Later, they were sent to a prison in Breslau. Eventually they were transferred (separately) to Auschwitz concentration camp and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where they were liberated in April 1945. Lasker-Wallfisch, a cellist, played in the women's orchestra in Auschwitz, a vocation that helped keep her alive. The book is based primarily on family letters written to the author's sister in England. Lasker-Wallfisch has lived in England since 1946 and is a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra, in which she plays the cello. The book contains a preface by Holocaust historian Martin Gilbert and 27 photographs.
George Cohen