Jump to content

Alma Rosé

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alma Maria portrait

Alma Maria Rosé(3 November 1906 – 4/5 April 1944[1]) was an Austrian violinist of Jewish descent. Her uncle was the composerGustav Mahler.She was deported by the Nazis to the concentration camp atAuschwitz-Birkenau.There, for 10 months, she directedan orchestra of female prisoners who played for their captors to stay alive.As director, Rosé held the status ofkapoof the music block.[2]

Rosé died in the concentration camp of a sudden illness, possibly food poisoning. Her experiences in the camp were depicted inPlaying for Time.

Early years[edit]

Alma Rosé's father was the violinistArnold Rosé(né Rosenblum; 1863–1946) who was the leader of theVienna Philharmonic Orchestrafor 50 years: from 1881 to 1931 as well as leader of theVienna State Operaorchestra and leader of the legendary Rosé String Quartet. Her mother, Justine (died 22 August 1938), wasGustav Mahler's sister. Alma was named for her uncle Gustav's wife,Alma Mahler(née Schindler).

Marriage[edit]

Alma grew up to be a violinist. In 1930 she married theCzechviolinistVáša Příhoda(1900–1960). In 1935 the marriage was dissolved.[3]

Career[edit]

Rosé had a highly successful career. In 1932 she founded the woman's orchestra,Die Wiener Walzermädeln(The Waltzing Girls of Vienna). The concertmistress was Anny Kux, a friend. The ensemble played to a very high standard, undertaking concert tours inAustria,Germany,Czechoslovakia,andPoland.[4]

Escape from the Nazis and final arrest[edit]

After theannexation of Austria with Germanyin 1938 Alma and her father Arnold, also a famous violin virtuoso, managed to escape toLondon.She went on her own to theNetherlandswhere she believed she could resume her musical career.[5]

When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, she was trapped. A fictitious marriage to a Dutch engineer named August van Leeuwen Boomkamp did not protect her; nor did her nominal status as a Christian convert. She fled to France, but in late 1942 when she tried to escape to neutralSwitzerland,she was arrested by theGestapo.After several months in theinternment camp of Drancy,she was deported in July 1943 to theconcentration campatAuschwitz.[6]

Auschwitz[edit]

Upon arrival in Auschwitz, Rosé was quarantined and became very ill, but eventually recovered. She assumed leadership of theMädchenorchester von Auschwitz(Girls Orchestra of Auschwitz). The orchestra had been in existence before Rosé's arrival, a pet project of SS-Oberaufseherin ( "SSchief supervisor ")Maria Mandl.Before Rosé, the orchestra was conducted by Zofia Czajkowska, a Polish teacher. The ensemble consisted mainly of amateur musicians, with a string section, but also accordions, percussion, guitars, flute, recorder and mandolins, but lacked a brass section. Singers and music-copyists rounded-out the membership of the Music Block.[7]The orchestra's primary function was to play at the main gate each morning and evening as the prisoners left for and returned from their work assignments; the orchestra also gave weekend concerts for the prisoners and the SS and entertained at SS functions.

Rosé conducted, orchestrated and sometimes played violin solos during its concerts. Apart from the official activity, she had the band rehearse and play forbidden music by Polish and Jewish composers to boost the spirits of band members and fellow inmates they trusted. She herself orchestratedFryderyk Chopin'sEtude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3and combined it with the lyrics she wrote. The conductor's strict and perfectionistic teaching style[8]helped mold the orchestra into an excellent ensemble, all of whose members survived during her tenure, and after her death, all except two (Lola Kroner and Julie Stroumsa) would live to see the end of the war. Rosé instructed orchestra members that they would "survive together or die together. There was no halfway road".[8]

Rosé died, aged 37, of a sudden illness at the camp, possibly food poisoning.[9]During this illness, Josef Mengele[10]signed an order for spinal tap on Rosé. The orchestra included several professional musicians, cellistAnita Lasker-Wallfischand vocalist/pianistFania Fénelon,each of whom wrote memoirs of their time in the orchestra, but alsoClaire MonisandHélène Rounder-Diatkin(fr),[11]who both survived as well. Fénelon's account,Playing for Time,was made intoa television film of the same name,and was decried by orchestra survivors as being misleading, and containing preposterous distortions of the truth.[12]

Alma's father,Arnold Rosédied in England in 1946.[13]Her brother, Alfred Rosé and his wife Maria Schmutzer Rosé, had fled Germany in 1938, eventually settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, prior to their move to London, Ontario, Canada, in the late 1940s, following Alfred's engagement to offer a summer opera workshop, through the invitation of Harvey Robb.

Recordings[edit]

Arnold Rosé's performances together with Alma were eventually released on CD.[14]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Alma Rosé: the violinist who brought music to Auschwitz".The Strad.26 January 2014.Retrieved4 March2022.
  2. ^Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Total Domination: The Holocaust, Plurality and Resistance,Routledge, Michal Aharony, note 144
  3. ^Newman, Richard and Karen Kirtley.Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz.Portland, OR.: Amadeus Press, 2000, p. 301.
  4. ^Newman, Richard and Karen Kirtley.Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz.Portland, OR.: 2000, p. 82.
  5. ^Newman, Richard and Karen Kirtley.Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz.Portland, OR.: Amadeus Press, 2000, p. 17.
  6. ^Newman, Richard and Karen Kirtley.Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz.Portland, OR.: Amadeus Press, 2000, p. 206.
  7. ^Newman, Richard, 1921- (2000).Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz.Kirtley, Karen. Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press. pp. 382–383.ISBN1-57467-051-4.OCLC41834672.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^abBrown, Kellie D. (2020).The Sound of Hope: Music as Solace, Resistance and Salvation During the Holocaust and World War II.McFarland. p. 46.ISBN978-1-4766-7056-0.
  9. ^Lebrecht, Norman (5 Apr 2000)."The true humanity of Alma Rosé".Telegraph.Archived fromthe originalon 27 February 2016.Retrieved4 Feb2020.
  10. ^Newman, Richard, 1921- (2000).Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz.Kirtley, Karen. Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press. p. 301.ISBN1-57467-051-4.OCLC41834672.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^Eischeid, Susan (2016).The Truth about Fania Fénelon and the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz-Birkenau.London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 58.ISBN978-3-319-31037-4.
  12. ^Newman, Richard, 1921- (2000).Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz.Kirtley, Karen. Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press. pp. 323–324.ISBN1-57467-051-4.OCLC41834672.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^"Professor Arnold Rosé".The Times.26 Aug 1946. p. 7.
  14. ^The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes.Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton – 1996 "Arnold Rosé, (i) with Alma Rosé, Beethoven: String quartets Nos. 4, 10 & 14. (***) Biddulph mono LAB O56-7. The recordings were made from 1927–32. The issue is valuable in that it affords an insight into a style of playing that has long passed into history."

Further reading[edit]

Theater[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAlma Rosé.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alma_Rosé&oldid=1228223129"