Music In Auschwitz

To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, HMD2025, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Association of Jewish Refugees and Holocaust education charity Learning from the Righteous are jointly staging a concert at Wigmore Hall that focuses on the music that was played at the camp and honours the musicians who were forced to perform it there.

When Auschwitz was established music had become a ubiquitous tool of Nazi control throughout the camp network.

Wigmore Hall, London

January 23rd 2025, at 1:00pm

The Commandant Rudolf Höss, drawing on his experiences in Dachau and Sachsenhausen, selected musicians from the initial cohorts of Polish and Soviet political prisoners and later from Jews who survived selection at Birkenau.

Their primary role was to play marching tunes that helped corral the columns of slave-labourers who left the camp in the morning and returned depleted in the evening, into easy-to-count rows of five.

As the Auschwitz complex grew, prisoner musicians were required to entertain the ever-expanding SS staff. Regular Sunday afternoon performances were held in front of Block 24 in Auschwitz 1 and smaller ensembles were forced to entertain senior members of the SS in more private gatherings.

Perversely, there were even musicians on hand to accompany public executions.

A group of people plays instruments outdoors — Musicians playing at the camps

January’s concert will feature music actually played in the camp, taken directly from manuscripts only recently discovered in the archives of the Auschwitz Museum. These pieces will be punctuated by the testimony of musician-prisoners.

Amongst the performers will be the internationally renowned cellist Raphael Lasker-Wallfisch.

His mother Anita played the cello in the women’s orchestra at Birkenau.

The concert takes place on Thursday 23rd January, at 1:00pm.

Tickets are £25 and can be purchased directly from the Wigmore Hall from their box office at 020 7935 2141 or via this link.

The concert will be narrated by Jason Isaacs.

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