Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz

Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz by Newman, Richard. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781574670516.

(Amadeus). Alma Rosss story first came to public attention through the intriguing 1980 film Playing for Time. The true story of this heroic woman is now told for the first time. Rose was born to musical royalty in Vienna when the imperial city was the center of the musical world. Her father was violinist and concertmaster Arnold Rose; her uncle was Gustav Mahler. In the 1930s she founded and led a brilliant womens touring orchestra. Like many other Viennese Jews, the Rose family was caught off guard by the rise of Nazism. Alma assisted her family to flee but was herself caught and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, Alma again formed and led a womens orchestra---the only womens musical ensemble in the Nazi camps---thereby saving the lives of some four dozen women. In telling Almas full story, the authors honor her and the valiant prisoner-musicians for whom music meant life.