The Essay: Five Cellos - Lost and Found

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The Essay: Five Cellos: Lost and Found: The Auschwitz Cello

The Auschwitz Cello

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Five Cellos: Lost and Found, The Auschwitz Cello

How the cellist of Auschwitz, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch's life was saved by her cello.

Kate Kennedy reflects on how the cellist of Auschwitz, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch's life was saved by her cello and how it changed her relationship to the instrument.

Writer and musician Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the physical, social and psychological impacts of performance.

What does it mean to be saved by an instrument? Anita Lasker-Wallfisch became known as the cellist of Auschwitz. Her beloved Ventepane cello disappeared at the same time as her parents were taken by the Nazis from her home in Breslau (now Wroclaw). When she was sent to Auschwitz, she narrowly avoided death by being recruited to the camp orchestra and filling the vacant role of cellist. Kate Kennedy working with archivists, finds the hut in which Anita practised with the other musicians, seeking answers as to why there was cello in Auschwitz, who had previously played it - whilst reflecting on how being saved by a cello, changes your relationship to the instrument.

Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Technical production by Mike Sherwood
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 3

The Essay: Five Cellos: Lost and Found

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

What happens when a musical instrument is destroyed, silenced or recovered?

What happens when a musical instrument is destroyed, silenced or recovered? Whose voice does it hold? And what can it tell us of past losses, and future possibilities?

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