The Laskers from Breslau (Wrocław)

They told of the loving family home in Breslau (Wrocław) where Goethe was read, French spoken on Sundays, and chamber music evenings were held. The father Dr. Alfons Lasker was a lawyer and was awarded the Iron Cross in the First World War. Mother Edith Lasker was a talented violinist and the three sisters Marianne, Anita, and Renate began music lessons at an early age.

After the Nazis came to power, the oldest sister Marianne was able to escape to England accompanying a children’s transport. In 1942, the parents were deported to the Polish transit ghetto in Izbica and murdered. Following a failed attempt to flee, Anita and her sister Renate were arrested and taken separately to Auschwitz in 1943 and only by chance did they find each other there again.

As a cellist in the women’s orchestra, Anita managed to save her own and her sister’s life. On 15 April 1945, they were liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the British. Anita Lasker Wallfisch immigrated to England and co-founded the London English Chamber Orchestra in 1948. She has been associated with the Jewish Museum Berlin for many years. As a contemporary witness, she shares her memories and experiences particularly with young people and works actively against forgetting.

The evening program includes readings from the family archive, contemporary texts, and musical pieces from the Lasker family’s life in Breslau, connecting the generations in one story – from the past through our present and into the future.

Program

Contributors

Anita Lasker Wallfisch – reading

Maya Jacobs-Wallfisch – concept, artistic direction, and reading

Raphael Wallfisch – cello and reading

Elizabeth Wallfisch – violin

Simon Wallfisch – cello, voice, and reading

Michal Lasker Golan – reading

Accompanied by Edward Rushton – piano