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Esther Béjarano (néeLöwy; 15 December 1924 – 10 July 2021) was one of the last survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. She survived because she was a player in the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. She was active in various ways, including speeches and in music, in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive.[1] She was a regular speaker at the International Youth Meeting organised yearly at the Max Mannheimer Study Center in Dachau.[2]
Biography
Born Esther Löwy, she was a daughter of Margarete (Heymann) and Rudolf Loewy,[3] the head cantor of a Jewish municipality, in Saarlouis.[4][better source needed][5] Her father encouraged her to get interested in music and Esther learned to play the piano.[5] At the age of 15 she left her parents' home to make an attempt to emigrate to Palestine; the attempt was unsuccessful.[5] She served two years of hard labour at a camp in Landwerk Neuendorf [de], near Fürstenwalde/Spree.[5]
On 20 April 1943, everyone in the camp was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There she had to drag stones until she volunteered to play accordion in the newly formed Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz.[5] Until then, she had only played the piano, never the accordion. Other players included Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. The orchestra had the task, among others, to play for the daily march of the work crews passing through the camp gate.[5]
After the war, she immigrated to Palestine on 15 September 1945[5] and in 1960 returned to Germany with her husband and two children.[6] At the beginning of the 1980s, she created the musical group Coincidence, with her daughter Edna and her son Joram. They sang songs from the ghetto and in Hebrew as well as anti-fascist songs.[5]
Antonella Romeo, ed. (2013). Erinnerungen. Vom Mädchenorchester in Auschwitz zur Rap-Band gegen Rechts (in German). Hamburg: Laika-Verlag. ISBN978-3-944233-04-8.
Lieder für das Leben. Curio-Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN3-926534-84-2.
Man nannte mich Krümel. Curio-Verlag, Hamburg 1989, ISBN3-926534-82-6.
Film
Esther che suonava la fisarmonica nell’orchestra di Auschwitz, Regia di Elena Valsania, Felìz – Edizioni SEB27, DVD allegato al volume: Esther Béjarano, "La ragazza con la fisarmonica. Dall’orchestra di Auschwitz alla musica Rap", A cura di Antonella Romeo, Prefazione di Bruno Maida, Edizioni SEB27, 2013; ISBN978-88-86618-94-6
^Roeske, Tobias (11 August 2016). "Fragen an die Geschichte". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 12 July 2021.
^Petersen, Peter (2018). "Rudolf Loewy". Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit (in German). Hamburg University. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
Esther Béjarano and Birgit Gärtner, Wir leben trotzdem: Esther Béjarano – vom Mädchenorchester in Auschwitz zur Künstlerin für den Frieden ("We live, nevertheless: Esther Béjarano – from Girl Orchestra in Auschwitz to artist for peace"), Pahl-Rugenstein, Bonn (2005); 3rd edition, corrected and expanded (2007), ISBN3-89144-353-6(in German)
Thomas Gonschior, Christa Spannbauer [de]: Mut zum Leben. Die Botschaft der Überlebenden von Auschwitz. (including an essay Bejarano) Europa Verlag, Berlin u. a. 2014, ISBN978-3-944305-57-8.
Yurtseven, Kutlu, Rosario Pennino, and Joram Bejarano. Esther Bejarano mit microphone mafia live in Kuba. (in German, illustrated, Verlag Wiljo Heinen, Berlin/Böklund 2017, ISBN978-3-95514-910-9.
