Esther Béjarano

Esther Béjarano (b. 15 December 1924 in Saarlouis), Violette Jacquet, and Anita Lasker Wallfisch are among the last survivors of the Girl orchestra of Auschwitz. Béjarano was born as Esther Loewy as a daughter of the Head Cantor of a Jewish municipality. The father encouraged his daughter to get interested in music and Esther learned to play the piano. At age 15 she had to separate from her parents, in order to prepare for emigration to Palestine. This emigration was thrwarted by the Nazis. She carried out two years of hard labour in Fuerstenwald Labour Camp. On April 20, 1943 all members of the labour camp were deported to Auschwitz. There she had to drag stones until she joined the Girl orchestra of Auschwitz. In the orchestra, she played the accordion. The orchestra had the task of playing for the daily march of the gangs by the camp gate. She survived Auschwitz after escaping in March, 1945.She emigrated to Palestine and returned later to Germany. At the beginning of the 1980s, with her daughter Edna and son Joram, she created the musical group Coincidence. They sing songs from the ghetto and Jewish as well as anti-fascist songs. Béjarano lives today in Hamburg. She is a co-founder and chairman of the Auschwitz Committee and Traegerin the Carl of Ossietzky medal.

Esther Béjarano "miracle" account

"I had great luck that in the block, in which I stayed overnight. One evening Mrs. Tschaikowska, a Polish music teacher, looked for women who could play an instrument. The SS instructed her to set up a girl orchestra. I introduced myself, said that I could play piano. We do not have a piano here, said Mrs. Tschaikowska. If you can play accordion, I will examine you. I had never played an accordion before. I had to try, so I did not have to drag stones. I said to her that I could play also accordion. She instructed me, to play a popular German song. I knew this song, asked her for a few minutes patience, so she could bring me in again. It was like a miracle. I played the song in tune and together with two friends to the orchestra was created.

"The function of the girl orchestra in Auschwitz-Birkenau was to stand and play at the gate, in the morning, when the gangs marched out and in the evening, and when they returned to the camp. We all had a bad conscience, because we helped to keep the prisoners in equal step and made it easier for Nazis to work the prisoners to death.

But it became worse. The SS instructed us to stand and play at the gate, when the trains arrived, in which innumerable Jewish people from all parts of Europe sat. It made people happy because where the music plays, they reasoned, it can it be not so bad. Those were the tactics of the Nazis. They wanted that all the people go to the gas chambers without resisting. We knew what was happening, and with tears in our eyes we played. We could not resist because behind us the SS stood with their rifles."

Literature

Esther Bejarano/Birgit Gardner: "We live nevertheless", Esther Bejarano - on the girl orchestra in Auschwitz to the artist for the peace ISBN 3-89144-353-6 ,

Media

* [http://stream.radiobremen.de/ramgen/media/rbton/nordwestradio/hoerspiel/bejarano_gespraech.rm Esther Béjarano, 51'34 minutes in the discussion with Silke Behl. 22. January 2002 de icon]
* [http://www.radiobremen.de/nordwestradio/hoerspiel/wooden_shoes/index.html Radio play "The Wooden Shoes" transmission with cut from 24 January 2002 de icon]
* [http://www.dkp-online.de/uz/aktuell/s0301.htm Web on the left of Speech to 8.1.05. in Berlin de icon]
* [http://www.dkp-online.de/uz/3619/s0901.htm We live nevertheless de icon]