The musical theme that struck a chord with WIZO supporters

The power of music was explored at a Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO UK) literary lunch featuring Anne Sebba, author of The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, and renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch.

One hundred and fifty guests heard Sebba and television presenter and producer Wendy Robbins discuss the story of the musicians who played for their lives in the death camp’s only exclusively female orchestra. Robbins was executive producer of the film The Commandant’s Shadow, which features the last surviving member of the women’s orchestra of Auschwitz, German-British cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.

Accompanied by pianist Simon Callaghan, Lasker-Wallfisch’s son Raphael Wallfisch performed a hauntingly beautiful set that included renditions of Bach’s Adagio from Organ Toccata in C, and From Jewish Life, B. 54, and Méditation hébraïque, B. 55, by the Jewish Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch.

Anne Sebba (right) in conversation with Wendy Robbins at the WIZO UK literary lunch (Photo: Elliott Franks)Elliott Franks

The duo also played Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, and Robert Schumann’s Träumerei from his Kinderszenen (“Scenes from Childhood”) suite – a particularly poignant performance given that it was the piece that Lasker-Wallfisch famously had to play to Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.