{"id":19501,"date":"2026-01-16T18:09:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=19501"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:51:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:51:58","slug":"the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 7:00PM<\/strong><br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/huc.edu\/about-huc\/our-campuses\/new-york\/\">Hebrew Union College<\/a><\/strong><br>1 West 4th Street (at Broadway), New York, NY10012<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Reception and Book Signing to follow<\/em>. <em>Please, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hmlf.org\/event\/save-the-date-anne-sebba\/\">RSVP<\/a><\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"351\" src=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/2025_HMLF_ASebba_WebInvite5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19437\" style=\"width:608px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/2025_HMLF_ASebba_WebInvite5.jpg 600w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/2025_HMLF_ASebba_WebInvite5-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:24px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Musical Program<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Felix Mendelssohn (1809\u20131847)<\/strong> &#8211; <em>Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">I. <em>Allegro molto appassionato<\/em> (excerpt)<br>arranged by O. Schnirlin and W. Schimmel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Sarah Vonsattel, violin<br>William Schimmel, accordion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Szymon Laks (1901\u20131983)<\/strong> &#8211; <em>Warsaw Polonaise No. 3<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">William Schimmel, accordion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin (1810\u20131849)<\/strong> &#8211; <strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cIn mir klingt ein Lied\u201d (Alma Ros\u00e9\u2019s Resistance Song)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Original lyrics by Ernst Marischka (1893\u20131963)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Emily Donato, soprano<br>Sarah Vonsattel, violin<br>Roy Feldhusen, piano<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Robert Schumann (1810\u20131856)<\/strong> &#8211; <em>Tr\u00e4umerei<\/em>, from <em>Kinderszenen<\/em>, Op. 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">arranged by K. Krantz and W. Schimmel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Eliot Bailen, cello<br>William Schimmel, accordion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:43px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>British author Anne Sebba presents her 2025 book <em>The Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival<\/em> in an evening combining discussion and live music. The program explores the history of women musicians forced to perform at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and the role music played in survival, coercion, and memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sebba will be joined in conversation by Dr. Bret Werb, Music Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a member of the Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found (HMLF) Advisory Board. Published to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi camps, the book draws on extensive research to illuminate the experiences of the Women\u2019s Orchestra, including its leader Alma Ros\u00e9, the Austrian violinist who assembled and conducted the ensemble until her death in Auschwitz in 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The evening will feature live performances of works by Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Szymon Laks\u2014music performed by members of the Women\u2019s and Men\u2019s Orchestras at Auschwitz\u2014followed by a reception and book signing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event is hosted by Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found (HMLF), an organization dedicated to the study, recovery, and performance of music by composers whose lives and careers were disrupted or destroyed during the Holocaust, and to confronting antisemitism and hate through scholarship and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>About the Book:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a book about the resilience of the human spirit and the role that music played in helping a group of almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations survive against the odds in the horrors of Auschwitz. It is a story of sisterhood and survival against the backdrop of a fundamental absurdity, music in a death camp, and was driven by the tenacity and determination of Alma Ros\u00e9, the 36-year-old virtuoso violinist niece of Gustav Mahler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ros\u00e9 was spared her life by the Nazis in exchange for conducting a marching band which had to play twice a day in all weathers as other women prisoners were forced to march out to work in the fields and in the subcamps. Some of the musicians also had to play Sunday concerts for Nazi officers and occasionally were commanded to give solo performance. They had little in the way of additional privileges beyond the greatest privilege of all, the hope that being in the orchestra might save their lives. But at what cost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>About Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anne Sebba FRSL is the prize-winning author of ELEVEN books including the best-selling biography THAT WOMAN, a life of Wallis Simpson based on her discovery of 15 unpublished letters locked away in an attic trunk. Her next book was Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940\u2019s about a wide variety of women and how they behaved in wartime Paris published in the US, UK, China, France and the Czech Republic, winner of the Franco-British award. She has also written biographies of Jennie Churchill, Mother Teresa and Laura Ashley among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2024 Anne was a judge for the inaugural non-fiction Women\u2019s Prize. She makes regular television appearances and has presented programmes for BBC R3 and R4 including two about the pianists, Harriet Cohen and Joyce Hatto. She began her working career as a foreign correspondent for Reuters news agency, the first woman accepted on their graduate trainee scheme, and has also worked for the BBC world services in their Arabic department, although she does not speak a word of Arabic. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, a Trustee of the National Archives Trust and a former chair of Britain\u2019s 10,000 strong Society of Authors Management Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2021 she published to great acclaim a life of Ethel Rosenberg, electrocuted in 1953 aged 37 for conspiracy to commit espionage following a trial with multiple miscarriages of justice, optioned by Miramax and shortlisted for the Wingate Prize. Her latest book is&nbsp;<strong>The Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz, a Story of Survival, published in the UK in March 2025, to commemorate the 80TH anniversary of the liberation of the camps and in the US in September 2025<\/strong>. The book will be translated into Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Finnish, Romanian and Chinese. Anne also works as a reviewer, journalist, after dinner speaker and lecturer on cruises, is an accredited speaker for the Arts Society as well as various other institutions and schools in the UK and US including the British Library, Royal Oak, English Speaking Union and the National Trust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found presents author Anne Sebba for a reading and discussion, featuring music of the Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz. This event is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"961\" height=\"580\" src=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-27-114208.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-27-114208.jpg 961w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-27-114208-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-27-114208-768x464.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 961px) 100vw, 961px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 7:00PMHebrew Union College1 West 4th Street (at Broadway), New York, NY10012 Reception and Book Signing to follow. Please, RSVP. Musical Program Felix Mendelssohn (1809\u20131847) &#8211; Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 I. Allegro molto appassionato (excerpt)arranged by O. Schnirlin and W. Schimmel Sarah Vonsattel, violinWilliam Schimmel, accordion Szymon Laks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":19439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-music","category-polish-jewish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 7:00PMHebrew Union College1 West 4th Street (at Broadway), New York, NY10012 Reception and Book Signing to follow. Please, RSVP. Musical Program Felix Mendelssohn (1809\u20131847) &#8211; Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 I. Allegro molto appassionato (excerpt)arranged by O. Schnirlin and W. Schimmel Sarah Vonsattel, violinWilliam Schimmel, accordion Szymon Laks [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-16T17:09:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-29T14:51:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"307\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"466\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/\",\"name\":\"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_-198x300.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-16T17:09:03+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-29T14:51:58+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2026-01-28\",\"endDate\":\"2026-01-28\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 7:00PMHebrew Union College1 West 4th Street (at Broadway), New York, NY10012\\nReception and Book Signing to follow. Please, RSVP. \\nMusical Program\\nFelix Mendelssohn (1809\u20131847) - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64\\nI. Allegro molto appassionato (excerpt)arranged by O. Schnirlin and W. Schimmel\\nSarah Vonsattel, violinWilliam Schimmel, accordion\\nSzymon Laks (1901\u20131983) - Warsaw Polonaise No. 3\\nWilliam Schimmel, accordion\\nFr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin (1810\u20131849) -  \u201cIn mir klingt ein Lied\u201d (Alma Ros\u00e9\u2019s Resistance Song)\\nOriginal lyrics by Ernst Marischka (1893\u20131963)\\nEmily Donato, sopranoSarah Vonsattel, violinRoy Feldhusen, piano\\nRobert Schumann (1810\u20131856) - Tr\u00e4umerei, from Kinderszenen, Op. 15\\narranged by K. Krantz and W. Schimmel\\nEliot Bailen, celloWilliam Schimmel, accordion\\nBritish author Anne Sebba presents her 2025 book The Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival in an evening combining discussion and live music. The program explores the history of women musicians forced to perform at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and the role music played in survival, coercion, and memory.\\nSebba will be joined in conversation by Dr. Bret Werb, Music Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a member of the Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found (HMLF) Advisory Board. Published to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi camps, the book draws on extensive research to illuminate the experiences of the Women\u2019s Orchestra, including its leader Alma Ros\u00e9, the Austrian violinist who assembled and conducted the ensemble until her death in Auschwitz in 1944.\\nThe evening will feature live performances of works by Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Szymon Laks\u2014music performed by members of the Women\u2019s and Men\u2019s Orchestras at Auschwitz\u2014followed by a reception and book signing.\\nThe event is hosted by Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found (HMLF), an organization dedicated to the study, recovery, and performance of music by composers whose lives and careers were disrupted or destroyed during the Holocaust, and to confronting antisemitism and hate through scholarship and performance.\\nAbout the Book:\\nThis is a book about the resilience of the human spirit and the role that music played in helping a group of almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations survive against the odds in the horrors of Auschwitz. It is a story of sisterhood and survival against the backdrop of a fundamental absurdity, music in a death camp, and was driven by the tenacity and determination of Alma Ros\u00e9, the 36-year-old virtuoso violinist niece of Gustav Mahler.\\nRos\u00e9 was spared her life by the Nazis in exchange for conducting a marching band which had to play twice a day in all weathers as other women prisoners were forced to march out to work in the fields and in the subcamps. Some of the musicians also had to play Sunday concerts for Nazi officers and occasionally were commanded to give solo performance. They had little in the way of additional privileges beyond the greatest privilege of all, the hope that being in the orchestra might save their lives. But at what cost?\\nAbout Author:\\nAnne Sebba FRSL is the prize-winning author of ELEVEN books including the best-selling biography THAT WOMAN, a life of Wallis Simpson based on her discovery of 15 unpublished letters locked away in an attic trunk. Her next book was Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940\u2019s about a wide variety of women and how they behaved in wartime Paris published in the US, UK, China, France and the Czech Republic, winner of the Franco-British award. She has also written biographies of Jennie Churchill, Mother Teresa and Laura Ashley among others.\\nIn 2024 Anne was a judge for the inaugural non-fiction Women\u2019s Prize. She makes regular television appearances and has presented programmes for BBC R3 and R4 including two about the pianists, Harriet Cohen and Joyce Hatto. She began her working career as a foreign correspondent for Reuters news agency, the first woman accepted on their graduate trainee scheme, and has also worked for the BBC world services in their Arabic department, although she does not speak a word of Arabic. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, a Trustee of the National Archives Trust and a former chair of Britain\u2019s 10,000 strong Society of Authors Management Committee.\\nIn 2021 she published to great acclaim a life of Ethel Rosenberg, electrocuted in 1953 aged 37 for conspiracy to commit espionage following a trial with multiple miscarriages of justice, optioned by Miramax and shortlisted for the Wingate Prize. Her latest book is The Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz, a Story of Survival, published in the UK in March 2025, to commemorate the 80TH anniversary of the liberation of the camps and in the US in September 2025. The book will be translated into Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Finnish, Romanian and Chinese. Anne also works as a reviewer, journalist, after dinner speaker and lecturer on cruises, is an accredited speaker for the Arts Society as well as various other institutions and schools in the UK and US including the British Library, Royal Oak, English Speaking Union and the National Trust. \\nHolocaust Music Lost &amp; Found presents author Anne Sebba for a reading and discussion, featuring music of the Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz. This event is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg\",\"width\":307,\"height\":466},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\",\"name\":\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\",\"description\":\"Instytuty Polskie\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\",\"name\":\"stypulkowskaa\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"stypulkowskaa\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 7:00PMHebrew Union College1 West 4th Street (at Broadway), New York, NY10012 Reception and Book Signing to follow. Please, RSVP. Musical Program Felix Mendelssohn (1809\u20131847) &#8211; Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 I. Allegro molto appassionato (excerpt)arranged by O. Schnirlin and W. Schimmel Sarah Vonsattel, violinWilliam Schimmel, accordion Szymon Laks [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2026-01-16T17:09:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-29T14:51:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":307,"height":466,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"stypulkowskaa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"stypulkowskaa","Szacowany czas czytania":"6 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/","name":"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_-198x300.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-16T17:09:03+02:00","dateModified":"2026-01-29T14:51:58+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2026-01-28","endDate":"2026-01-28","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 7:00PMHebrew Union College1 West 4th Street (at Broadway), New York, NY10012\nReception and Book Signing to follow. Please, RSVP. \nMusical Program\nFelix Mendelssohn (1809\u20131847) - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64\nI. Allegro molto appassionato (excerpt)arranged by O. Schnirlin and W. Schimmel\nSarah Vonsattel, violinWilliam Schimmel, accordion\nSzymon Laks (1901\u20131983) - Warsaw Polonaise No. 3\nWilliam Schimmel, accordion\nFr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin (1810\u20131849) -  \u201cIn mir klingt ein Lied\u201d (Alma Ros\u00e9\u2019s Resistance Song)\nOriginal lyrics by Ernst Marischka (1893\u20131963)\nEmily Donato, sopranoSarah Vonsattel, violinRoy Feldhusen, piano\nRobert Schumann (1810\u20131856) - Tr\u00e4umerei, from Kinderszenen, Op. 15\narranged by K. Krantz and W. Schimmel\nEliot Bailen, celloWilliam Schimmel, accordion\nBritish author Anne Sebba presents her 2025 book The Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival in an evening combining discussion and live music. The program explores the history of women musicians forced to perform at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and the role music played in survival, coercion, and memory.\nSebba will be joined in conversation by Dr. Bret Werb, Music Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a member of the Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found (HMLF) Advisory Board. Published to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi camps, the book draws on extensive research to illuminate the experiences of the Women\u2019s Orchestra, including its leader Alma Ros\u00e9, the Austrian violinist who assembled and conducted the ensemble until her death in Auschwitz in 1944.\nThe evening will feature live performances of works by Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Szymon Laks\u2014music performed by members of the Women\u2019s and Men\u2019s Orchestras at Auschwitz\u2014followed by a reception and book signing.\nThe event is hosted by Holocaust Music Lost &amp; Found (HMLF), an organization dedicated to the study, recovery, and performance of music by composers whose lives and careers were disrupted or destroyed during the Holocaust, and to confronting antisemitism and hate through scholarship and performance.\nAbout the Book:\nThis is a book about the resilience of the human spirit and the role that music played in helping a group of almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations survive against the odds in the horrors of Auschwitz. It is a story of sisterhood and survival against the backdrop of a fundamental absurdity, music in a death camp, and was driven by the tenacity and determination of Alma Ros\u00e9, the 36-year-old virtuoso violinist niece of Gustav Mahler.\nRos\u00e9 was spared her life by the Nazis in exchange for conducting a marching band which had to play twice a day in all weathers as other women prisoners were forced to march out to work in the fields and in the subcamps. Some of the musicians also had to play Sunday concerts for Nazi officers and occasionally were commanded to give solo performance. They had little in the way of additional privileges beyond the greatest privilege of all, the hope that being in the orchestra might save their lives. But at what cost?\nAbout Author:\nAnne Sebba FRSL is the prize-winning author of ELEVEN books including the best-selling biography THAT WOMAN, a life of Wallis Simpson based on her discovery of 15 unpublished letters locked away in an attic trunk. Her next book was Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940\u2019s about a wide variety of women and how they behaved in wartime Paris published in the US, UK, China, France and the Czech Republic, winner of the Franco-British award. She has also written biographies of Jennie Churchill, Mother Teresa and Laura Ashley among others.\nIn 2024 Anne was a judge for the inaugural non-fiction Women\u2019s Prize. She makes regular television appearances and has presented programmes for BBC R3 and R4 including two about the pianists, Harriet Cohen and Joyce Hatto. She began her working career as a foreign correspondent for Reuters news agency, the first woman accepted on their graduate trainee scheme, and has also worked for the BBC world services in their Arabic department, although she does not speak a word of Arabic. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, a Trustee of the National Archives Trust and a former chair of Britain\u2019s 10,000 strong Society of Authors Management Committee.\nIn 2021 she published to great acclaim a life of Ethel Rosenberg, electrocuted in 1953 aged 37 for conspiracy to commit espionage following a trial with multiple miscarriages of justice, optioned by Miramax and shortlisted for the Wingate Prize. Her latest book is The Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz, a Story of Survival, published in the UK in March 2025, to commemorate the 80TH anniversary of the liberation of the camps and in the US in September 2025. The book will be translated into Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Finnish, Romanian and Chinese. Anne also works as a reviewer, journalist, after dinner speaker and lecturer on cruises, is an accredited speaker for the Arts Society as well as various other institutions and schools in the UK and US including the British Library, Royal Oak, English Speaking Union and the National Trust. \nHolocaust Music Lost &amp; Found presents author Anne Sebba for a reading and discussion, featuring music of the Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz. This event is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York."},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/81pQkAIlTrL._SY466_.jpg","width":307,"height":466},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/01\/16\/the-womens-orchestra-of-auschwitz-a-book-discussion-with-live-music\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cThe Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz\u201d A Book Discussion with Live Music"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1","name":"stypulkowskaa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"stypulkowskaa"},"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19501"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19585,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19501\/revisions\/19585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}