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Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz

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"Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz" is a poignant and beautifully related account of one the most extraordinary women who ever lived. Alma Rosé, the daughter of the most renowned violinist of Vienna who was concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and the first violinist of perhaps the finest string quartet in the world, was also the niece of Gustav Mahler. She became a fine violinist and musician in her own right, taking musical Vienna by storm, and creating a famous and successful women's orchestra which toured throughout Europe. Soon after the Nazi takeover in Austria, the Jewish family left for England where Alma continued to give concerts, playing even in her father's illustrious quartet. But she also took the risk of concertizing in Holland. She was trapped by the sudden Nazi blitzkrieg and takeover of Holland, tried to escape, was betrayed and caught by the Nazis, and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenwald. It was at Auschwitz that Alma's extraordinary life takes on new dimensions: within the death camp, she creates and directs a women's orchestra composed not only of traditional symphonic instruments, but also of guitars, mandolins, accordions, and recorders, playing arrangements made and copied by women inmates of Auschwitz. Because of Alma's work at Auschwitz, hundreds of women were saved from the Nazi gas chambers; in fact, many survivors contributed to the book through interviews with the author. This story has been told before, but never as well as Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley relates it. Mr. Newman took twenty-two years of painstaking work of research and interviewing before completing the book. In the Editor's Note, Ms. Kirtley points out Mr. Newman's "phenomenal achievement" of talking with "more than one hundred people able to provide firsthand information about Alma Rosé." The book is carefully researched with abundant documentation, a massive bibliography, and appendices which contain lists of every woman who played in the Auschwitz-Birkenau orchestra, a background of the Mahler-Rosé family, a list of every interview that was conducted, and a "camp glossary" of terms used at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The authors delve deeply into Vienna's history, culture, and society, which produced the strong anti-Semitic feelings, and, ultimately, the welcoming of Nazi troops into the city. A short review, of course, cannot do justice to the scope and dimension of this marvelous book; it is a work that every student of music and European history should read. However, the book will also appeal to readers without a background in modern European history, for the book is written clearly and with firm structure and form. Richard Newman and Karen Kirley have provided the reader with a remarkable book about an exceptional woman --- a poignant reminder of the anguish and tragedy of Nazi Germany and Austria, but also about the courage and humanity that existed in some people. This is an extraordinary book.

My review is best expressed in a letter to the authors. While the letter speaks little of the content of the story, it does the reflections of the reader:

I have just finished your book, Alma Rosé, Vienna to Auschwitz and felt compelled to write a word of thanks for such an excellent book. I have lived in Vienna for 23 years and in our early years I walked by the Rosé house in the Pyrkergasse each day, taking our oldest to the Volkschule. Of course, at that time, I had no idea the importance of number 23. Through your book and others of Viennese history I have gained a profound sense of history that a midwest American, growing up in the suburbs, rarely has a chance to learn.

We have since moved from the 19th district, but each time I am in the city the enormity of life that has gone on before me deeply tugs at my soul. The stones I walk on have carried the lives of so many, each woven into a history of joy and often of utter loss and evil.

I believe your book was one of those that has allowed me to enter into a life past. Through it I have gained new perspective that the joy and beauty I now enjoy is not without the marring of tragedy and sorrow of many who were innocent. I was also able with my family to visit Auschwitz this summer. The visit has left a lasting impact on our minds and it certainly allowed me to have even deeper sense of personal presence as I read your book. The immensity of the tragedy leaves one lost for thoughts and words. The life of Alma Rosé puts a reality to that part of history that seems unbelievable, yet was played out in the very places I have lived and walked.

I visited the Rosé grave in Grinzing last week and noted that Alma's name is inscribed on the headstone (unfortunately, the date is 4/4/44 and not 5/4/44). In honor of her courage and for the lives she most certainly helped spare, I left a memorial candle on her grave. I did not seem fitting to leave the grave without some acknowledgement and sign of respect of her family's life.

Again, thank you for the fine research and excellent presentation of her life. The book must also be considered a memorial not just to one life, but to many who's stories will never be told.

Richard Newman has spent many years working on this book and it paid off, there can't be a biography on hardly anyone that is better researched. And he has written it in a way that doesn't judge the person, he relates the facts but doesn't try any psychological insight. He leaves this up to the reader. A beautiful, compelling book on a woman that used a difficult position to save as many lives as possible. If ever anyone deserved a monument, it is Alma Rosé. Richard Newman`s book lays the foundation. I will publish the German version in Fall 2002.

The niece of Gustav Mahler and the daughter of famed violinist Arnold Rose, Alma Maria Rose was born in Vienna, studied at the Vienna Conservatory and the Vienna State Academy, and enjoyed a respectable musical career. In 1932 Alma formed the first women's orchestra in the country (known as the Vienna Waltzing Girls) and toured throughout Europe. With the rise of Nazism Alma, a Jew, was deported to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. It was at Auschwitz that Alma's musical heritage came to bear as never before. She took a group of terrified (and often very untrained) women and transformed them into the only female musical ensemble in the Nazi death camps. Their ability to make music saved them from being gassed by the Nazi captors. Some 40 women survived the death camps because of their participation -- but not Alma. She died of an illness in the camps before they were liberated by the Allies. Alma Rose: Vienna To Auschwitz is a very moving and articulate testament to a most remarkable woman. It is a superbly written and highly recommended addition to any college, university, or community library biography, Holocaust studies, women studies, or music history reading list or collection.

Alma Rose was born to musical royalty in Vienna (the daughter of famed violinist Arnold Rose and niece of Gustav Mahler). She studied with distinction at the Vienna Conservatory and the Vienna State Academy, and consequently enjoyed a very respectable and successful musical career. In 1932 Alma formed a women's orchestra (Vienna Waltzing Girls) and toured throughout Europe. But like so many others of her class and background, she was totally caught off guard by the Nazi onslaught. Courageously assisting her family's flight from the Nazi's antisemitic pogroms, she was nonetheless caught and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. There she took a group of terrified and untrained women and transformed them into an orchestra whose music saved them from being summarily gassed by their Nazi captors. Forty women were to survive that horrific place because of their participation in Alma's prisoner orchestra. But Alma herself was to die of illness in the camps before they were able to be liberated by the Allies. A welcome contribution to Holocaust studies, as well as a brilliantly presented biography of a gifted musician, Alma Rose: Vienna To Auschwitz is a memorial to a gifted musician and a testament to Alma's personal struggle to help as many women survive as she could. It is also a damning indictment of the Nazi horror and an effective counter to the pernicious attempts of historical revisionists to suppress both the atrocities and the courage of those dark times.

I read this book on recommendation after I read Martin Goldsmith's The Inextinguishable Symphony. This book is an extremely compelling story about the fascinating and tragic life of Alma Rosé, a Viennese violinist with a heavy music pedigree (she was the niece of venerated composer Gustav Mahler and the daughter of violinist Arnold Rosé) who, in spite of her efforts to get out and then to stay alive by leading the women's orchestra in Birkenau, meets her demise in the revier hospital. The story made me gasp and I had to read several paragraphs over again so that I could digest what I was reading. The only problem that I had with this book was that events seemed very out of order throughout. Little stories were stuck in here and there that interrupted the flow of the story. What also surprised me and made me a little angry at the same time was that there were so many events in Alma's life that can't be definitely corroborated, including her behavior as the conductor of the women's orchestra at Birkenau and her death.