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The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz : a story of survival / by Sebba, Anne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Moving and powerful, this is a vivid portrait of the women who came together to form an orchestra in order to survive the horrors of Auschwitz. New York Times bestselling author of Les Parisiennes and That Woman: A Life of Wallis Simpson now examines how a disparate band of young girls struggled to overcome differences and little musical knowledge to please the often-sadistic Nazi overseers. In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to other inmates, forced laborers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the harshest of circumstances, with little more than a bowl of soup to eat, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra saved their lives. But at what cost? What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba traces these tangled questions of deep moral complexity with sensitivity and care. From Alma Rose, the orchestra's main conductor, niece of Gustav Mahler and a formidable pre-war celebrity violinist, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, its teenage cellist and last surviving member, Sebba draws on meticulous archival research and exclusive first-hand accounts to tell the full and astonishing story of the orchestra, its members, and the response of other prisoners for the first time"--
Subjects: Auschwitz (Concentration camp); Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz.; Internment camp inmates as musicians.; Women Nazi concentration camp inmates.;

Milena and Margarete : a love story in Ravensbrück / by Strauss, Gwen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A profoundly moving celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances. From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafka's first translator and epistolary lover, and a journalist opposed to fascism. A non-conformist, bi-sexual feminist, she was way ahead of her time. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her home became a central meeting place for Jewish refugees. German Margarete, born to a middle-class family, married the son of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. But soon swept up in the fervor of the Bolshevik Revolution, she met her second partner, the Communist Heinz Neumann. Called to Moscow for his "political deviations," he fell victim to Stalin's purges while Margarete was exiled to the hell of the Soviet gulag. Two years later, traded by Stalin to Hitler, she ended up outside Berlin in Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp built for women. Milena and Margarete loved each other at the risk of their lives. But in the post-war survivors' accounts, lesbians were stigmatized, and survivors kept silent. This book explores those silences, and finally celebrates two strong women who never gave up and continue to inspire. As Margaret wrote: "I was thankful for having been sent to Ravensbrück, because it was there I met Milena.""--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Buber-Neumann, Margarete, 1901-1989.; Jesenská, Milena, 1896-1944.; Ravensbrück (Concentration camp); Lesbians; Women Nazi concentration camp inmates; World War, 1939-1945;

The dressmakers of Auschwitz : the true story of the women who sewed to survive / by Adlington, L. J.(Lucy J.),1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.'The Dressmakers of Auschwitz' is a powerful chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps.
Subjects: Biographies.; Auschwitz (Concentration camp); Dressmaking; Fashion; Jewish women in the Holocaust.; Women dressmakers; Women Nazi concentration camp inmates; Women's clothing; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;

The sisterhood of Ravensbrück : how an intrepid band of Frenchwomen resisted the Nazis in Hitler's all-female concentration camp / by Olson, Lynne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror in the minds of those who know about this infamous all-women's concentration camp. Particularly shocking was the discovery that sometimes-lethal medical experiments were performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80% of them were political prisoners. Among them was a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance. Already well-practiced in sabotaging the Nazi occupation of France, these women joined forces to defy their German captors and keep each other alive. Calling themselves the maquis (guerillas) of Ravensbrück, the sisterhood's members, amid unimaginable terror and brutality, subverted Germany's war effort by refusing to do the work they were assigned. Knowing that they risked death for any infraction did not stop them from defying their SS tormentors at every turn -- even staging a satirical musical revue about the horrors of the camp. After the war, when many in France wanted nothing more than to focus on the future and forget about those who'd resisted the enemy, the women from Ravensbrück refused to allow their achievements, needs, and sacrifices to be erased. They banded together once more, first to support one another in healing their bodies and minds, and then to continue their crusade for freedom and justice -- an effort that would have repercussions for their country and the world into the twenty-first century"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Gaulle-Anthonioz, Geneviève de.; Pery d'Alincourt, Jacqueline, 1919-; Postel-Vinay, Anise.; Tillion, Germaine.; Association nationale des anciennes déportées et internées de la résistance; Ravensbrück (Concentration camp); Women Nazi concentration camp inmates; Women Nazi concentration camp inmates; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;

The nine : the true story of a band of women who survived the worst of Nazi Germany / by Strauss, Gwen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The Nine follows the true story of the author's great aunt Helene Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris. The nine women were all under thirty when they joined the resistance. They smuggled arms through Europe, harbored parachuting agents, coordinated communications between regional sectors, trekked escape routes to Spain and hid Jewish children in scattered apartments. They were arrested by French police, interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo. They were subjected to a series of French prisons and deported to Germany. The group formed along the way, meeting at different points, in prison, in transit, and at Ravensbrück. By the time they were enslaved at the labor camp in Leipzig, they were a close-knit group of friends. During the final days of the war, forced onto a death march, the nine chose their moment and made a daring escape. Drawing on incredible research, this powerful, heart-stopping narrative is a moving tribute to the power of humanity and friendship in the darkest of times"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Podliasky, Hélène, 1920-2012.; Ravensbrück (Concentration camp); World War, 1939-1945; Women political prisoners; Women concentration camp inmates; Prisoner-of-war escapes; Prisoners of war; Guerrillas; Guerrillas; World War, 1939-1945;

From where they stood [videorecording] / by Bruttman, Tal,on-screen participant.; Cognet, Christophe,on-screen participant,film director.; Halter, Corinne,on-screen participant.; Kino Lorber, Inc.,publisher.;
Christophe Cognet, Tal Bruttman, Corinne Halter.It is not widely known that a handful of prisoners in the Nazi death camps managed somehow to take clandestine photographs of the hell that was being hidden from the world. Director Christophe Cognet retraces the footsteps of these courageous men and women in a quest to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs.E.DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 2.0.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Foreign films.; Historical films.; Motion pictures, French.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; War films.; Nazi concentration camp inmates; Nazi concentration camps; War photography.; War photography; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
For private home use only.