Esther Béjarano ( Löwy; 15 December 1924 – 10 July 2021) was one of the last survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. She survived because she was a player in the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. She was active in various ways, including speeches and in music, in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. She was a regular speaker at the International Youth Meeting organised yearly at the Max Mannheimer Study Center in Dachau.

Biography

Born in 1924 as Esther Löwy, she was a daughter of Margarete (Heymann) and Rudolf Loewy, the head cantor of a Jewish municipality, in Saarlouis. Her father encouraged her to get interested in music and Esther learned to play the piano. At the beginning of the 1980s, she created the musical group Coincidence, with her daughter Edna and her son Joram. They sang songs from the ghetto and in Hebrew as well as anti-fascist songs.

Béjarano died in Hamburg on 10 July 2021, aged 96. She was one of the last surviving orchestra members.

Awards and honours

Béjarano was awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal of the in 2004. In 2008, Béjarano became honorary president of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime.<!--

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Béjarano held the Cross of Merit, First class, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, since 2012. She was honoured with ethecon's 2013 "Blue Planet Award" for her "relentless activity for peace and against anti-Semitism, racism and fascism". In 2014, she was awarded the Giesbert Lewin Prize of the Cologne chapter of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Collaboration. She became honorary citizen of her birth town Saarlouis the same year on the occasion of her 90th birthday. In 2016, she received the Preis für Solidarität und Menschenwürde (Prize for solidarity and human dignity) of the . The Senate of Hamburg awarded her the in 2019. The Gemeinschaftsschule school in Wiesloch was named after her in 2020. The same year, she was awarded the Hermann Maas Prize for her activities against racism and exclusion, and for her political commitment.

Publications

  • Lieder für das Leben. Curio-Verlag, Hamburg 1995, .
  • Man nannte mich Krümel. Curio-Verlag, Hamburg 1989, .

Film

  • Esther che suonava la fisarmonica nell’orchestra di Auschwitz, Regia di Elena Valsania, Felìz – Edizioni SEB27, DVD allegato al volume: Esther Béjarano, "La ragazza con la fisarmonica. Dall’orchestra di Auschwitz alla musica Rap", A cura di Antonella Romeo, Prefazione di Bruno Maida, Edizioni SEB27, 2013;

References

Further reading

  • Esther Bejarano and Birgit Gärtner, Wir leben trotzdem: Esther Bejarano – vom Mädchenorchester in Auschwitz zur Künstlerin für den Frieden ("We live, nevertheless: Esther Bejarano – from Girl Orchestra in Auschwitz to artist for peace"), Pahl-Rugenstein, Bonn (2005); 3rd edition, corrected and expanded (2007),
  • Esther Béjarano, "La ragazza con la fisarmonica. Dall’orchestra di Auschwitz alla musica Rap", A cura di Antonella Romeo, Prefazione di Bruno Maida, Allegato DVD "Esther che suonava la fisarmonica nell’orchestra di Auschwitz" (in Italian), Regia di Elena Valsania, Edizioni SEB27, 2013,
  • Thomas Gonschior, : Mut zum Leben. Die Botschaft der Überlebenden von Auschwitz. (including an essay Bejarano) Europa Verlag, Berlin u.&nbsp;a. 2014, .
  • : Damit nie wieder geschehe, was damals geschah (in German). In: Perlensau. Ausgewählte Gedichte. ', Berlin 2009, .
  • Yurtseven, Kutlu, Rosario Pennino, and Joram Bejarano. Esther Bejarano mit microphone mafia live in Kuba. (in German, illustrated, Verlag Wiljo Heinen, Berlin/Böklund 2017, .
  • Tekin, Habib. Singen bis es keine Nazis mehr gibt! Nationalsozialistische Mechanismen in den Zeitzeugenberichten von der Auschwitz-Überlebenden Esther Bejarano. In: Jahrbuch für internationale Germanistik 56/2, 283-306.
  • Tekin, Habib. Esther Bejarano’s Vision of Unity and Peace Between Jews and Palestinians. In. Utopia and Dystopia in German Literature, Film, and Television. Interdisciplinary Studies on German Philology. Istanbul: IU Press, 79-99.
  • The Wooden Shoes (audio play, excerpts, in German), Radio Bremen, 24 January 2002