Playing for Time [Paperback]

Fania Fenelon (Author), Marcelle Routier (Author), Judith Landry (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press; New edition edition (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815604947
• ISBN-13: 978-0815604945
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > History > Historical Study > Oral History

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Playing for Time, November 29, 1999

By 

Jessica A. (Cleveland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing for Time (Paperback)

Playing for Time, a grade-A book by Fania Fenelon, is a document not only about the Holocaust, but one that goes deeper: it shows how music brought redemption of spirit in the Hell of Hells. When Fania and her friend are brought to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, she is recognized by a girl in the camp's orchestra as a Parisian caberet singer. She is accepted in to the orchestra, where she is forced to sing the opera Madame Butterfly for the SS. Fania does not let the hardships of the camp take over her spirit, though. She uses music as a weapon, and, as an orchestrator as well as singer for the group, she orchestrates marches by Jews and anti-Nazis right under the noses of her captors, who never catch on. Fania's love of music allows her to survive Auschwitz, and when she is sent with the rest of the "Orchestra Girls" to Bergen-Belsen near the end of the war, her passion for life pulls her through a severe case of typhus. One day she learns that the Nazis are going to shoot the prisoners of Bergen-Belsen at 3:00 that afternoon. The English arrive at the camp at 11:00 that same morning. Fania just barely survived the war, and afterwards she returned to Paris and started again as a caberet singer. She died of cancer in her hometown in 1983. Playing for Time teaches us many things. It teaches us that the human spirit cannot be killed. It teaches us that good always wins over evil. And it teaches us that if you have a love, stick to it. One day it might just save your life.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Book, January 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing for Time (Paperback)

This is an absolutely incredible book. An already powerful story it is taken to a new level by the constant reminder that this is first hand experience.

It is perfect for nearly anyone, the musician will relate to the music, the historian to the accuracy and the avid reader will simply latch on and be unable to let go.

It brought tears to my eyes.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An unusual holocaust tale, October 26, 2005

By 

Harte C. Crow "History reader" (Etna, NH, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Playing for Time (Paperback)

This is the story of a French singer who spent 2± years in a Nazi concentration camp. Saved because of her musical abilities, FF spent her internment as a member of an all-women's orchestra which played for the camp's leaders. It is a strange tale, not especially well or clearly written--essentailly stuff for a holocaust junkey. Compared to Martin Goldsmith's The Unestinquishable Symphony, this book is definitely second tier.