Alma Maria Rosé was a wellknown violinist in Austria. Her father was the leader of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Vienna and her mother was a sister of the composer Gustav Mahler. In 1938 she escaped to London, but she came back to Europe to give concerts. She married a Dutchman. In 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. There she was ordered to be the leader of the orchestra that consisted of female prisoners. The orchestra played every morning at the entrance of the camp for the prisoners who left the camp to do forced labour and when they came back in the evening.
The orchestra stood under the protection of high SS officials. None of these musicians was killed. Alma Maria Rosé has died in 1944, due to probably food poisoning.
See for more information the biography of Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz (Portland 2000).
Addition of a visitor of the website
Biography