The Last Musician of Auschwitz

Released: 17th March 2025. The extraordinary story of cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch alongside other victims of the camp who played and created music amidst the terrors of the Holocaust. To mark the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation, The Last Musician of Auschwitz tells the extraordinary story of cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, along with other victims of the camp - Jews, Poles and Roma - who played and created music amidst the terrors of the Holocaust. Together they show how, amid the most brutal and dehumanising situations, music could be a lifeline, a way to give testimony and even a means of resistance. An interview with the 99-year-old Lasker-Wallfisch, the only living survivor to have played in one of the camp orchestras, frames the documentary. It explores how the SS used and abused music at the Nazis' largest concentration and extermination camp - demanding prisoner orchestras put on concerts for their entertainment as well as play marches to accompany slave labour groups leaving and returning each day, recalled by many as a grotesque form of torture. The Last Musician of Auschwitz also highlights the stories of three other musicians from all over Europe: singer songwriter Ilse Weber and classical composers, Szymon Laks and Adam Kopycinski. Though all are now dead their words and music live on, showcased here in a series of powerful new performances by international musicians, including cellist Raphael Wallfisch, son of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Between them, these works touch on themes of loss, longing and cultural memory and address head on the barbaric and murderous regime at the Nazis' most notorious death camp. Each is specially filmed at an emotionally resonant location in the environs of Auschwitz today, taking an innovative and contemporary visual approach to each highly charged performance. The resulting film casts a fresh light on the place of music in one of the darkest periods of twentieth century history, commemorating its victims and reflecting on the power music had, amidst a cacophony of pain and degradation, to offer a note of defiance and hope.