Alma Maria Rosé (3 November 1906 – 4/5 April 1944) was an Austrian and Jewish violinist. Her uncle was the composer

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

. She was deported by the Nazis to the concentration camp at

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. There, for 10 months, she directed the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. As director, Rosé held the status of

kapo A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary () at a Nazi concentration or extermination camp. They were, whether voluntary or coerced, collaborators who worked under the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) to carry out administrative tasks or supervise th ...

of the music block. Rosé died in the concentration camp of a sudden illness, possibly food poisoning. Her experiences in the camp were depicted in '' Playing for Time''.

Early years

Alma Rosé's father was the violinist

Arnold Rosé Arnold Josef Rosé (born ''Rosenblum''; 24 October 1863 – 25 August 1946) was a Romanian-born Austrian Jewish violinist. He was leader of the Vienna Philharmonic for over half a century. He worked closely with Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. ...

(né Rosenblum) who was the leader of the

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; ) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of ...

for 50 years: from 1881 to 1931 as well as leader of the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

orchestra and leader of the legendary Rosé String Quartet. Her mother, Justine, was

's sister. Alma was named for her uncle Gustav's wife,

Alma Mahler Alma Mahler-Werfel (born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. Musically active from her early years, she was the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice ...

(née Schindler).

Marriage

Alma grew up to be a violinist. In 1930 she married the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

violinist

Váša Příhoda Váša Příhoda (22 August 1900Nicolas Slonimsky, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed.26 July 1960) was a Czechoslovakia, Czech List of classical violinists, violinist and minor composer. Considered a Niccolò Paganini, Pagan ...

. In 1935 the marriage was dissolved.Newman, Richard and Karen Kirtley. ''Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz''. Amadeus Press, 2000, p. 301.

Career

Rosé had a highly successful career. In 1932 she founded the woman's orchestra, ''Die Wiener Walzermädeln'' (''The Waltzing Girls of Vienna''). The concertmistress was Anny Kux, a friend. The ensemble played to a very high standard, undertaking concert tours in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Escape from the Nazis and final arrest

After the annexation of Austria with Germany in 1938 Alma and her father Arnold, also a famous violin virtuoso, managed to escape to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She went on her own to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

where she believed she could resume her musical career. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, she was trapped. A fictitious marriage to a Dutch engineer named August van Leeuwen Boomkamp did not protect her; nor did her nominal status as a Christian convert. She fled to France, but in late 1942 when she tried to escape to neutral

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, she was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. After several months in the internment camp of Drancy, she was deported in July 1943 to the

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

Auschwitz

Upon arrival in Auschwitz, Rosé was quarantined and became very ill, but eventually recovered. She assumed leadership of the ''Mädchenorchester von Auschwitz'' ('' Girls Orchestra of Auschwitz''). The orchestra had been in existence before Rosé's arrival, a pet project of SS-Oberaufseherin (" SS chief supervisor")

Maria Mandl Maria Mandl (sometimes erroneously spelled Mandel; 10 January 1912 – 24 January 1948) was an Austrian-born Holocaust perpetrator who was the (camp leader) of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp from 1942 until her arrest in 1945. ...

. Before Rosé, the orchestra was conducted by Zofia Czajkowska, a Polish teacher. The ensemble consisted mainly of amateur musicians, with a string section, but also accordions, percussion, guitars, flute, recorder and mandolins, but lacked a brass section. Singers and music-copyists rounded-out the membership of the Music Block. The orchestra's primary function was to play at the main gate each morning and evening as the prisoners left for and returned from their work assignments; the orchestra also gave weekend concerts for the prisoners and the SS and entertained at SS functions. Rosé conducted, orchestrated and sometimes played violin solos during its concerts. Apart from the official activity, she had the band rehearse and play forbidden music by Polish and Jewish composers to boost the spirits of band members and fellow inmates they trusted. She herself orchestrated

Fryderyk Chopin The Fryderyk is the annual award in Polish music. Its name refers to the original Polish spelling variant of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's first name. Its status in the Polish public can be compared to the US Grammy and British BRIT Awar ...

's Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3 and combined it with the lyrics she wrote. The conductor's strict and perfectionistic teaching style helped mold the orchestra into an excellent ensemble, all of whose members survived during her tenure, and after her death, all except two (Lola Kroner and Julie Stroumsa) would live to see the end of the war. Rosé instructed orchestra members that they would "survive together or die together. There was no halfway road". Rosé died, aged 37, of a sudden illness at the camp, possibly food poisoning. During this illness, Josef Mengele signed an order for spinal tap on Rosé. The orchestra included several professional musicians, cellist

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (born 17 July 1925) is a German-British cellist, and a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. Family Lasker was born into a German Jewish family in present-day Wrocław, Poland, then-Breslau, Germany. Sh ...

and vocalist/pianist

Fania Fénelon Fania Fénelon (née Fanja Goldstein; 2 September 1908 – 19 December 1983) was a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer whose 1976 memoir, ''Sursis pour l'orchestre'', about survival in the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz during the Holo ...

, each of whom wrote memoirs of their time in the orchestra, but also Claire Monis and Hélène Rounder-Diatkin, who both survived as well. Fénelon's account, ''Playing for Time'', was made into a television film of the same name, and was decried by orchestra survivors as being misleading, and containing preposterous distortions of the truth. Alma's father,

died in England in 1946. Her brother, Alfred Rosé and his wife Maria Schmutzer Rosé, had fled Germany in 1938, eventually settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, prior to their move to London, Ontario, Canada, in the late 1940s, following Alfred's engagement to offer a summer opera workshop, through the invitation of Harvey Robb.

Recordings

Arnold Rosé's performances together with Alma were eventually released on CD.''The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes''. Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton – 1996 "Arnold Rosé, (i) with Alma Rosé, Beethoven: String quartets Nos. 4, 10 & 14. (***) Biddulph mono LAB O56-7. The recordings were made from 1927–32. The issue is valuable in that it affords an insight into a style of playing that has long passed into history."

References

Theater

* Claudio Tomati: ''Alma Rosé'' Sedizioni a Teatro (2006);

External links

Background to Alma Rosé
Crayford Duo: Alma Rosé programmes {{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Alma 1906 births 1944 deaths Jewish violinists Austrian violinists Austrian women violinists Austrian conductors (music) Austrian women conductors (music) Austrian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Austrian civilians killed in World War II Austrian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Musicians from Vienna 20th-century Austrian conductors (music) 20th-century violinists Women classical violinists 20th-century Austrian women musicians Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Kapos (concentration camp) Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz members