The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz

Remarkable . . . deft . . . A vivid account of the experiences of the 40 or so women who briefly came together to make the music that saved their lives. Running through this fine book is Sebba's empathy for the impossible moral choices presented to these young women

GUARDIAN

Meticulous research . . . a detailed picture of the orchestra's players. [A] remarkable story . . . The author has done these women proud

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

A carefully layered and vividly compelling picture . . . The vile moral maze in which Auschwitz operated, and the shocking possibilities of a casual advantage, are brilliantly covered here, along with the fundamentals of the story

IRISH INDEPENDENT

As a work of scholarship, it's a formidable achievement . . . Sebba doesn't judge individual motives. She presents conflicting perspectives even-handedly, and gives each of her subjects their own voice, even as she details - in unflinching clarity - the constant, often barely believable means by which their captors sought to strip them of their humanity

GRAMOPHONE

An extraordinary account of the musicians who literally played for their lives

JEWISH CHRONICLE

[A] harrowing and illuminating portrait of concentration camp life . . . Sebba writes without sensationalising. An indelible picture of this community of musicians and the ways in which they navigated the abject misery around them . . . scrupulously documented

THE HERALD

Anne Sebba tells this harrowing story with tremendous rigour and care, capturing both the complex horror of the women's situation and the dignity and bravery with which they faced it. An impressive, important, deeply moving book

SARAH WATERS

An important book, powerfully written, carefully researched. The frightening and discordant notes of Auschwitz can be he heard through an ensemble of compelling voices, voices we must never forget

THOMAS HARDING

Anne Sebba brings meticulous research and a brilliant writer's eye to one of the darkest questions of World War II. What would you do to survive and what might be the price?

ANTHONY HOROWITZ

An important record of the incomprehensible cruelty perpetrated in Auschwitz, using music as an instrument of torture. But for those who played, it was a path to survival

VICTORIA HISLOP

If you read just one book about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, make it this. The author tells a story of how darkness beyond the imagination could never extinguish the light of humanity at its brightest, bravest and best

ANTHONY SELDON

An important addition to our understanding of Auschwitz, of women's experiences during the Shoah, of the power of music to resist the overwhelming forces of dehumanisation and most especially of the apparent paradox that the killers could cherish beautiful music at one moment and then resume their monstrous killing the next. The research is prodigious, the stories gripping. The book deepens all that we know and shows that examining one subset of the victims of Auschwitz, only enhances our understanding of life within the camp

MICHAEL BERENBAUM, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies

Anne Sebba's groundbreaking study reminds us of the sheer insanity, perversity and uniqueness of the Holocaust - where some of Europe's most accomplished citizens, its Jewish musicians, were made to play music as they witnessed their relatives and fellow Jews being gassed

TOM GROSS

Anne Sebba has done it again. In this superb and timely book about an extraordinary, and often overlooked slice, of WWII history, Sebba succeeds in presenting complex, conflicting and challenging questions - survival, choice, collaboration, friendship, in the worst of circumstances - with great intelligence and, most of all, with compassion. She dares the reader to stand in the shoes of those who lived through these brutal and appalling times. Rigorously researched and elegantly written, this is the biography of the women's orchestra of Auschwitz we need. Magnificent

KATE MOSSE

Pitch perfect . . . a symphony of a story, sensitively told and deeply researched. The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz reminds us of the power of music and art, and how the smallest good deed can change - even save - a life. May these women never be forgotten for their contribution to history

HEATHER DUNE MACADAM

Powerful and important. This superb book tells its story with humanity, insight and scrupulous scholarship. These are stories of determination, survival in the most horrific of circumstances, friendship, and above all the power of hope. Vital and magnificent, this is an unforgettable book about an orchestra of unforgettable women

KATE WILLIAMS

Remarkable

DAILY TELEGRAPH, Best Books of 2025

An intensely moving book

HISTORY EXTRA, Best Books of 2025

This is a triumph of stitching together an almost-erased history. It is a gripping narrative that spares no detail, but provides another important witness to an iniquitous moment in recent history.

THE STRAD