A deeply researched story about the lives in Auschwitz as prisoners. So heartbreaking. A book we all need to read. I loved it!

I would rate this a 7/10, but with this rating system I will round up and give it 4 ⭐️s. Overall, it’s an informative book that sheds light on a perspective rarely heard of when learning about the Holocaust. It was interesting to learn about the women, the process, the full picture. Unfortunately, it was VERY difficult to keep track of the time frame and persons being discussed. You could go from the beginning of the founding of Auschwitz’s to the childhood of one of the orchestra member’s to a summary of how an instrument was gotten and then jump into a retelling of their day. It was not smooth reading by no stretch of the imagination. I was a bit lost on what the purpose of the book was since it wasn’t straightforward, and at one point she says: “… revealing here is the answer to my nagging question throughout the research on this book: what special qualities enabled a teenager without either of her parents to survive prison and camp life of the most brutal kind and emerge to lead a full life… born with a will to survive or was that will forged in Auschwitz?” I didn’t get that question relayed during my reading until this point. However, all complaints aside, I was glad to have read it. As she says in the book, “The courage of the orchestra girls, like everyone else who survived Belsen, demands to be recognized.”

My favorite quote: “The Auschwitz orchestras exposed the grotesque contradiction at the heart of the Final Solution—the Nazis’ inability to decide whether Jews were to be annihilated because they were the lowest of the low or because they ran the world in some form of evil conspiracy.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars)

This is one of those books that sits with you long after you finish the last page. The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz is a powerful and meticulously researched account of a group of women who survived one of the darkest chapters in human history by playing music — not as artists, but as tools of propaganda, comfort, and control in a death camp.

Anne Sebba handles this subject with the sensitivity and nuance it demands. She never shies away from the moral complexity of what these women endured — playing for the very people responsible for destroying their families and communities, all while navigating the fragile line between survival and complicity. Alma Rosé’s leadership, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s testimony, and the sheer strength of these women left me both heartbroken and in awe.

This is not an easy read, but it’s an important one. The narrative is clear, the sourcing is rich, and Sebba’s ability to center the humanity of these women — even in inhumane circumstances — is what truly sets this book apart. I learned so much I hadn’t known, even after reading other Holocaust memoirs and histories.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. I’m always grateful for the opportunity to read such meaningful, carefully crafted work — and this one in particular will stay with me for a long time.

Devastating, unforgettable, and necessary. A deeply moving tribute to the women who played music to survive.

Anne Sebba brings astonishing care and clarity to this heart-wrenching true story of survival, sacrifice, and impossible moral choices. The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz doesn’t just recount facts—it breathes life into the names, faces, and haunting melodies of nearly fifty women whose instruments became lifelines.

This book is not easy to read, but it’s essential. It asks hard questions: What does it mean to survive? What does it mean to be forced to create beauty in the midst of brutality? And how do you carry the weight of that survival?

For readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz or The Librarian of Auschwitz, this is a must-read—offering new perspectives, especially from the voices of women and musicians who endured the unthinkable.