Lasker-Wallfisch is the last surviving member of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz
Born in 1925, the British-German cellist and Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch recently received a personal visit from King Charles, “demonstrating his support and friendship” in honor of her 100th birthday.
King Charles has known Lasker-Wallfisch for more than 50 years — the latter is a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra, of which the King has been a patron since 1977.
The English Chamber Orchestra has performed across the globe for over 60 years and is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world.
A portrait of Lasker-Wallfisch also hangs in the East Wing of Buckingham Palace, which was commissioned by the King when he was Prince of Wales as part of his “Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust project.”
From the beginning of the war, Lasker-Wallfisch and her sister, Renate, had to work as forced laborers at a paper factory — they used this opportunity to forge documents for other forced laborers from France. In 1943, when the two sisters tried to flee with forged passports, they were imprisoned and sent separately to Auschwitz.
Because Lasker-Wallfisch could play an instrument, she was assigned to the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, performing marches for the departure and arrival of forced labour workers.
On Sundays, the orchestra performed for the SS. “The cello saved my life,” she later said. Luckily, both sisters survived their transfer to Bergen-Belsen in a forced “Death March” across Germany.
This camp was liberated by the British in 1945.
After the liberation, Bergen-Belsen was visited by violinist Yehudi Menuhin and composer Benjamin Britten, whose performance at the camp made a lasting impact on Lasker-Wallfisch.
“The Auschwitz prisoners, the few that remain, all fear the world will not believe what happened there,” Lasker-Wallfisch told the BBC at the time. “Liberation finally came on the 15th. The liberation we’d been hoping for for three years. We still think we’re dreaming. We see the English driving through the camp, people who want to do us no harm … But now we’re looking forward. We’re full of hope and new courage. We’re liberated.”
In 1946, Lasker-Wallfisch emigrated to Britain. Her book “Inherit the Truth 1939-1945: The Documented Experiences of a Survivor of Auschwitz and Belsen” was published in 1996.
In 2018, on the German Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism, Lasker-Wallfisch spoke in parliament, admonishing people not to forget. She said she perceived an increasing societal sentiment to leave such things in the past.
“What are we meant to draw the line under?” She questioned. “What happened, happened, and it cannot be expunged by drawing a line.”
A concert was recently presented in London’s Wigmore Hall in her honor. Many dignitaries attended the event, as well as her daughter Maya, son Raphael, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.