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 march­ing music to oth­er inmates in all weath­ers. While still liv­ing amid the harsh­est of cir­cum­stances, 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 Rosé, 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 very first time.