Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, one of three sisters, was born in Breslau in 1925. Her father, who was awarded the Iron Cross in WWI, was a lawyer. Her mother was a violinist and her uncle a chess master. Her sister Marianne managed to escape to England in I939. In April 1942, her parents were deported and murdered. Anita and her sister Renata were working in a paper factory and spared. They began to forge documents to enable French forced laborers to escape. In September 1942 she and Renata tried to escape but were arrested by the Gestapo at the train station and imprisoned. The two sisters were sent to Auschwitz in December 1943. Anita was a talented musician and became a member of the Women’s Orchestra. As she later said, “The cello saved my life.” In the wake of the Soviet advance, Anita and her sister were part of the evacuation from the camp in October 1944. From the hell of Auschwitz, she arrived in the hell of Bergen Belsen. On April 15th, 1945, the British army took the camp. Anita was a witness at the Belsen Trial of I945. She came to Britain in I946 and cofounded the English Chamber Orchestra. She married the pianist Peter Wallfisch and has two children, four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.