The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival

• Author: Anne Sebba
• Genre: Nonfiction History
• Publication Date: September 16, 2025
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

In 1943 a women’s orchestra was formed at one of the most brutal death camps ever created on the order of German SS officers. Some forty-seven or so young girls who had been sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau from various countries, played in this hotch-potch band of hurriedly assembled instruments. For almost all of them it saved their lives. Although several other camps boasted male orchestras, there was no other female orchestra in any of the camps, prisons or ghettos created by the Nazis. It lasted for little over a year and at its height reached a high level of performance largely thanks to a strict rehearsal timetable of at least ten hours a day insisted on by its conductor, the Austrian violinist, Alma Rosé.

In addition to playing when the workers went out in the morning and came back into the camp at the end of the day in a bizarre attempt to keep the weary prisoners in lock step as they tried to march in time to the music, they also performed at a concert at least once every Sunday. Occasionally they were summoned by Nazi officers to give individual performances of a favourite piece of music, purely as entertainment of a perverted kind, perhaps for a birthday. Here is one of the fundamental conundrums at the heart of this story; how was it possible that these most barbaric killers could apparently display genuine emotion on hearing such beautiful music?

Even at its height the women’s orchestra of Auschwitz was always something of a raggle-taggle mixture of amateurs, staying just one step ahead of their volatile oppressors. They were strengthened by having a few experienced musicians but everyone depended on each other, polished performers and relative beginners, all hoping in their weakened state they could play well enough together to stay alive until liberation. That most of them did reveals the extraordinary determination and reliance on female solidarity required to make the group successful.

How and why was the orchestra formed, who were its members and what was its role in Nazi propaganda? Was it aimed at masking the atrocities in the camps or to provide solace to the perpetrators? What was the effect on those who owe their survival to being a part of this project and the inevitable compromises that were made? Can this possibly be described as complicity with the Nazis? These are just some of the tangled questions of deep moral complexity that Anne Sebba will examine as she tells the remarkable story of these women for the first time.

In a time where people love to read Holocaust fiction, marked by names like ‘The X of Auschwitz,’ I was initially hesitant to check out more about this book. But once I realized that this wasn’t fiction but historical fact, I was more intrigued. Jewish people have faced persecution for millennia, and true stories of survival and resistance during the Holocaust and other periods of persecution. Before reading this, I knew nothing about a women’s orchestra in Auschwitz specifically, although I had heard that there was an orchestra that was forced to play. And as difficult as it is for me to read Holocaust history, it’s equally important to bear witness and share factual stories of the Holocaust, especially as Jewish people face an unprecedented rise in antisemitism around the world at levels not seen since the Holocaust.

To begin with, I reviewed this as an audiobook which was narrated by Helen Stern. She did a fantastic job with the various different names and places and foreign words that came up in this story involving multiple languages including German, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, and Russian, to name a few. However, this is the kind of book that I can confidently say would work better as a print or ebook. I struggled at times with Stern’s soft voice and even cadence as she narrated horrifying scenes. Additionally, I had trouble keeping track of everyone named for a good part of the book, because there was so much going on, which I’m going to get into.

In one of the cruelest sites of the Holocaust, Auschwitz in 1943 was a place where hope went to die along with entire families. It was one of the most incongruous places to have an orchestra performing day in and day out, yet that is exactly what had been formed. The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz was set up for a few different reasons: the SS leaders wanted music to boost the morale of the Nazi guards; it was a new form of torture for the prisoners; and one of the most important reasons, the harsh realities of their new setting was hidden until it was too late to do anything about it. The orchestra had been in existence prior to 1943, but this is when Alma Rosé took over leadership.

Violinist Alma Rosé, an Austrian Jew who was the niece of Gustav Mahler, led this orchestra. A rigid woman with high standards, she worked hard to make her orchestra as good as possible. This might not seem too difficult, but her orchestra worked hard under conditions that were far beyond the pale. And while she wasn’t an easy woman to get close to, she is responsible for creating an orchestra comprised of nearly 50 women. Not only that, but she negotiated better conditions for her girls than the typical Auschwitz barracks—under the guise of it being better for the instruments to stay in an insulated cabin. She also got them small improvements that worked to save lives, such as access to a little more food and better hygiene. Additionally, I was shocked to learn that the Nazi guards valued the orchestra music enough to not immediately kill the women who were sick enough to go to the infirmary, like the other prisoners experienced. A prisoner who couldn’t work was a waste of resources, although in this case membership in the orchestra did save lives.

Alma saved as many women as she could, whether they had true musical talent or not. Her orchestra was a mix of Jews and gentiles, and it was comprised of women from all across Europe, from France to Russia and even Greece. The women didn’t all speak a common language, making it difficult to lead this kind of orchestra, and at times there was animosity amongst the women, but for the most part, they learned to work together in an effort to survive. And it was an incredible accomplishment, with almost all of the nearly 50 member strong orchestra surviving. Under Rosé’s leadership the orchestra changed into a more professional and diverse group, as she replaced the less skilled musicians with women who could play better, and stopped the prior conductor’s favoring of Polish gentiles.

I appreciated that the author delved into the emotional toll that playing in this orchestra had on Alma and the other women. Playing jaunty marches as the prisoners were on their way to and from long days of forced labor and hiding the reality of the camps from new arrivals (how bad could it truly be if there was an orchestra playing?) weighed on the conscience of these women, especially as they picked through the confiscated belongings to find instruments. Additionally, playing outdoors seven days a week in clothing that wasn’t suitable for the weather conditions was difficult and took a toll on their physical health as they slowly starved to death, subjected to petty humiliation, and being forced to perform where hot ashes from the crematoria rained down on them is something that could only be thought up by the most depraved minds of the 20th century. 

Additionally, Sebba talks about the depravity of the Nazi and SS guards, many of whom enjoyed the music and would force the women to play additional concerts for them, for the holidays or just whenever they wanted, no matter where they were. And for the women of the orchestra, I can’t imagine that they’d ever find the same enjoyment of playing or listening to music that they did before they were sent to Auschwitz. This was a tough read, even through Stern’s beautiful voice and soft narration. If you do plan to read this one, I’d suggest reading an ebook or print version, but this is an incredible piece of history to learn about.

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