Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

101: Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

Today (July 17th ) Anita Lasker-Wallfisch turned 101 years old.

Anita was born in 1925 in Breslau, Germany (today Wroclaw, Poland.)

Her Father, Alfons, was a Lawyer who was awarded the Iron Cross during World War 1 and  her Mother, Edith, was a Violinist.

Her Uncle was Edward Lasker (an International Chess Master and the Inventor of the Mechanical Breast pump, which saved many premature infants' lives.)

In 1939 Anita’s Parents were able to send their Daughter, Marianne, to the UK on the Kindertransport.

In 1942 her Parents were deported by the Nazis and murdered near Lublin, German-Occupied Poland.

In September 1942 Anita and her Sister, Renate, tried to flee Nazi Germany for France and were arrested at the Breslau Train Station.

Coming from a Regular German Prison the Sisters were sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland by Regular Train and not the usual Cattle Cars in December 1943 (on different Trains.

Anita received the Tattoo Number of 69388 on her arm upon arrival.

Anita, being a Cello Player, was chosen for the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz (German: Mädchenorchester von Auschwitz.)

The Orchestra played marches as the Slave Laborers left the Camp for each day's work and when they returned.

They played for the Men, Women and Children whom the Germans selected to be killed in the Gas Chambers.

They also gave forced Concerts for the SS.

In October 1944 Anita was moved to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany where she survived 6 Months with Starvation Rations and Disease until being liberated by the British on April 15, 1945.

During the Belsen Trial, which took place from September to November 1945, Anita testified against the Camp Commandant Josef Kramer, Camp Doctor Fritz Klein, and Deputy Camp Commandant Franz Hössler, who were all sentenced to Death and hanged that year.

In 1946 Anita and Renate moved to the United Kingdom with the help of their Sister, Marianne.

Anita Co-Founded the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) in 1948.

Anita married Peter Wallfisch (a Pianist also from Breslau, Germany who immigrated to British Palestine -Present-Day Israel-  in 1938 before immigrating to the UK in 1951)  in 1952.

They have 2 Children: her Son is the Cellist Raphael Wallfisch, and her Daughter, Maya Jacobs-Wallfisch, is a Psychotherapist.

Peter Wallfisch died in 1993.

Since 1994 Anita has visited German and Austrian Schools to talk about and explain her experiences during the Holocaust.

In 1996 she published her Memoir “Inherit the Truth.”

In 2018, she gave a Commemorative Speech in the German Bundestag to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

In December 2020 Lasker was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was conferred by the Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Today, at 101 years old, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch lives in London.