Cellist and contemporary witness Anita Lasker Wallfisch shared the stage with three generations of her family for the first time.
Marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp on 27 January 1945, they read letters from the family written between 1942 and 1952 and played works by Beethoven, Schubert, Bloch, Ravel, and others.
recording available
Where
Old Building, ground level, Glass Courtyard
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
They told of the loving family home in Breslau (Wrocław) where Goethe was read, French spoken on Sundays, and chamber music evenings were held. The father Dr. Alfons Lasker was a lawyer and was awarded the Iron Cross in the First World War. Mother Edith Lasker was a talented violinist and the three sisters Marianne, Anita, and Renate began music lessons at an early age.
After the Nazis came to power, the oldest sister Marianne was able to escape to England accompanying a children’s transport. In 1942, the parents were deported to the Polish transit ghetto in Izbica and murdered. Following a failed attempt to flee, Anita and her sister Renate were arrested and taken separately to Auschwitz in 1943 and only by chance did they find each other there again.
Anita, Renate and Marianne Lasker with their parents, 1938; private property
Video recording of the event The Laskers from Breslau (Wrocław) – A Family Reunion in Music and Words from 27 January 2019; Jewish Museum Berlin 2019
As a cellist in the women’s orchestra, Anita managed to save her own and her sister’s life. On 15 April 1945, they were liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the British. Anita Lasker Wallfisch immigrated to England and co-founded the London English Chamber Orchestra in 1948. She has been associated with the Jewish Museum Berlin for many years. As a contemporary witness, she shares her memories and experiences particularly with young people and works actively against forgetting.
The evening program includes readings from the family archive, contemporary texts, and musical pieces from the Lasker family’s life in Breslau, connecting the generations in one story – from the past through our present and into the future.
Anita Lasker, 1938; private property
Anita Lasker Wallfisch and Maya Jacobs-Wallfisch; photo: Battina Görlitzer
Program
| Intro | Anita Lasker Wallfisch, BBC recording from Bergen-Belsen (1945) |
|---|---|
| Reading | from letters by Anita Lasker Wallfisch |
| Music | works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Ernest Bloch, Paul Ben-Haim, Maurice Ravel, J. S. Bach, and Benjamin Wallfisch |
Contributors
Anita Lasker Wallfisch – reading
Maya Jacobs-Wallfisch – concept, artistic direction, and reading
Raphael Wallfisch – cello and reading
Elizabeth Wallfisch – violin
Simon Wallfisch – cello, voice, and reading
Michal Lasker Golan – reading
Accompanied by Edward Rushton – piano
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Video Recordings: Watch Past Museum Events (77)
Watch Past Museum Events
We film select events, such as conferences, panel discussions, book presentations, and our lecture series.
-
Vanishing Points of Memory. On the Holocaust and Colonialism in the Present Day
A Conversation with Natan Sznaider and René Aguigah (in German, video recording available)
Discussion
Tue 31 Jan 2023, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Reconciliation with Evil: Story of a Survival
Book Presentation with Leon Weintraub (in German)
Reading/Discussion
Thu 27 Okt 2022, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Albert Einstein, Hans Kaufmann and Zionism
An unknown letter
Symposium
Mon 12 Sep 2022 (video recording available) -
Read the Signs
An evening to mark the 70th anniversary of the Night of Murdered Poets
Reading/Discussion
Sun 14 Aug 2022, 7 pm (video recording available in Yiddish, English and German) -
Symposium on the 70th Anniversary of the Night of Murdered Poets
Part of the Summer Program for Yiddish Language and Literature (with video recording of the event)
Symposium
Sun 14 Aug 2022, 2 pm (video recording available in Yiddish, English and German) -
Mendelssohn Discourses: Media Revolution – Publicity, Celebrity, A Flood of Images
Caspar Battegay and Shmuel Feiner talk with curator Inka Bertz and Frederek Musall.
Discussion
Tue 5 Jul 2022, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Emancipation and Law
On the history of jurisprudence and Jewish equal rights – book launch and panel discussion
Reading/Discussion
Tue 26 Apr 2022, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
“Ich kämpfe gegen alles, was mich niederdrücken will“ (I Fight Against Everything that Tries to Oppress Me)
The diary of Jewish communist resistance fighter Karl Neuhof and correspondence with his family
Mon 11 Apr 2022, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
Rafi, Judenbub. Die Rückkehr der Seligmanns nach Deutschland
Book presentation and discussion with Rafael Seligmann, publicist, political scientist and historian, and Hetty Berg, director of the Jewish Museum Berlin
Thu, 24 Mar 2022, 7 pm -
Staging Jewishness
Artist talk with the photographer Frédéric Brenner
Wed 2 Mar 2022, 7.30 pm (video recording available) -
“The Lonely Living Stars”
Concert for the Memorial Day of the Victims of National Socialism
Thu 27 Jan 2022, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Shtetl Berlin All-Star Concert
Hanukkah 2021: Candle lighting with Yiddish songs, instrumental music and dance
Concert
2 Dec 2021, 7 pm (video recording available) -
Iber der grenets / Crossing the Border: Yiddish Literature and Culture Today
Presentation of an extensive collection of Yiddish short stories (in German)
Sat, 20 Nov 2021, 6.30 pm (via Zoom) -
Jews Don't Count?
Book launch and talk with the author David Baddiel, Sascha Chaimowicz, Marina Chernivsky and Daniel Donskoy, moderated by Jo Frank, in English
Tue 26 Oct 2021 -
Is anyone still waiting for the Messiah? – Jewish and Christian Views
With Prof. Christoph Markschies (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Prof. Daniel Krochmalnik (University of Potsdam)
24 Aug 2021, 7 pm (video recording available, in German) -
Yael Bartana – Redemption Now
Digital opening event with Yael Bartana, Hetty Berg, Shelley Harten and Gregor Lersch
Language: mainly in English, with brief sections in GermanExhibition Opening
3 Jun 2021 -
The 2nd DAGESH Art Award goes to Talya Feldman
& Opening of the Installation The Violence We Have Witnessed Carries a Weight on Our Hearts
Language: English and GermanExhibition Opening
20 May 2021 -
In Celebration of Daniel Libeskind’s 75th birthday
with Daniel Libeskind, JMB Director Hetty Berg, and film director Axel Fuhrmann, moderated by Sonja Marx of Saarland Broadcasting
Discussion
Tue 4 May 2021, 7 pm -
Shtetl Berlin All-Star Concert
Hanukkah 2020: Candle lighting with Yiddish songs, instrumental music and dance
Concert
12 Dec 2020 -
Conversation with the Artist Wendy Ewald
With Wendy Ewald and Gregor H. Lersch as part of the exhibition This Place
Artist Talk
5 Mar 2020 -
Shared History
Virtual Conference on 1,700 years of Jewish life in German-speaking lands
Conference
7–9 Dec 2020 -
The Last Veit Simons from Berlin
One of Berlin’s oldest Jewish families in a transnational story of class, gender, and sexuality
With: Anna Hájková and Maria von der Heydt
Language: German, no subtitlesReading/Discussion
11 Dec 2019 -
Conversation with the Artist Thomas Struth
With Thomas Struth (photographer) and Theresia Ziehe (curator of photography), related to the exhibition This Place, in German
Artist Talk
5 Dec 2019 -
About a Tea Bowl
Discussion with brief presentations about interwoven experiences of post-Soviet Jewish migration, in German
Lecture/Discussion
27 Nov 2019 -
The Family Album
Peter Schaul recounts the life of his mother, Dora Schaul, whose estate is part of the interactive installation The Family Album
Language: German, no subtitlesLecture/Discussion
9 Nov 2020 -
Ruth Wodak:
Swing to the right?!Ruth Wodak traces how a new “normality to the right” is establishing itself in many European countries (in German)
Lecture/Discussion
17 October 2019 -
Zvi Aviram: Brushes with Death
16 September 2019
Zvi Aviram was born in January 1927 in Berlin as Heinz Abrahamsohn. From age 14, he had to perform forced labor in the arms industry. During the so-called factory operation on 27 February 1943, his parents were arrested and deported and he himself went into illegality. -
Karl M. von der Heyden: From Berlin to New York
29 August 2019
In his book From Berlin to New York, Karl M. von der Heyden describes his experiences as a child and youth in war-torn Germany and his journey to the USA, where he began studying at Duke University in 1957 and rose to the boardrooms of Pepsi and Dreamworks. -
A Rebbe for the World
On the 20th Yahrzeit of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Introductions by Cilly Kugelmann and Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal and lecture by Joseph Telushkin, in German and English
Reading/Discussion
1 Jul 2014 -
“To Know One Religion Is to Know None”
W. Michael Blumenthal Fellow Walid Abdelgawad talks about reflections on Islam and Judaism in the writings of German-speaking Jewish orientalists between 1833 and 1955 (in German)
Video: in German; no subtitles
28 August 2019 -
Sally Perel:
Hitlerjunge Salomon12 June 2019
Sally Perel was born in Peine in April 1925. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union he pretended to be a Volksdeutscher and called himself Josef Perjell.
In 1990, his memoirs were published and were filmed in the same year under the title Hitlerjunge Salomon. -
Museums, Religion, and the Work of Reconciliation and Remembrance
Museums are called on to deal critically and transparently with the often invisible colonial history of their collections. The curators Jisgang Nika Collision (Haida Gwaii Museum, Haida Nation & Canada) and Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Saxonian State Ethnographic Collections) discussed this topic.
9 May 2019 -
Access Barriers. Critical Perspectives on Racism in Schools and Curatorial Practices
Keynote by Bonita Bennett (District Six Museum, Cape Town) at the conference Access Barriers on museums as places of social change.
Lecture/Discussion
20 Mar 2019 -
The Laskers from Breslau (Wrocław) – A Family Reunion in Music and Words
27 January 2019
Cellist and contemporary witness Anita Lasker Wallfisch shares the stage with three generations of her family for the first time.
Marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp on 27 January 1945, they read letters from the family written between 1942 and 1952 and play works by Beethoven, Schubert, Bloch, and others.
27 Jan 2019 -
Peter Neuhof: A Youth in the Shadow of the Persecution
3 December 2018
Peter Neuhof speaks about his memories and experiences in an interview with Aubrey Pomerance, head of the archive. His parents were active members of the German Communist Party (KPD) and were arrested in 1943. Peter was able to remain in the parental home. -
Happy Birthday, Academy Programs!
Welcoming Remarks and Introducing the Academy Programs | Discussion with Performance: Archive of Life. Memory in a Society Shaped by Migration | Panel Discussion: Jewish Fathers – Jewish Children? | Panel Discussion: A Pre-fascist Era? | Reception: 5 Years – 5 Friends – 5 Gifts
2 Dec 2018 -
Polish Perspectives on '68: March Protests
22 November 2018
This event for the “'68 Now” series discusses (in German and Polish) the events of 1968 from the Polish perspective. In Poland, the student protests were co-opted by an antisemitic rampage that resulted in 13,000 Jews being forced to leave the country. -
Living with Islamophobia
The international conference “Living with Islamophobia” considered how cultural and religious affiliations are constructed and invited experts to enter into discussion.
11–12 Oct 2018 -
Michael Sfard:
The Jerusalem Dispute. The Fight for Human Rights in Israeli Courts6 Sep 2018
Lecture by Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers -
Imported Antisemitism?
Is Antisemitism increasing with the number of refugees from Arab countries? We discuss with political, academic, and practical experts which manifestations of antisemitism among Arab migrants and Muslims in Germany exist (in German).
30 Aug 2018 -
Seyla Benhabib: The Global Refugee Crisis and the Challenge to Liberal Democracies
26 June 2018
Seyla Benhabib (Yale University) discusses the challenges migration poses to liberal democracies. -
Hanni Levy: Surviving in Berlin
Born in 1924, survived the Nazi era in hiding in Berlin with the help of friends, in German
Eyewitness Talks
25 Jun 2018 -
Stolen Judaica
Provenance Research in Israel and GermanyIn this symposium, research that explores the origins of Jewish ceremonial objects exclusively in Israel and Germany, took center stage for the first time.
Conference
18/19 Jun 2018 -
Ongoing Struggles. Anti-Discrimination Work during the Rise of the Far Right
Opening Session of the academic conference
Including Imani Perry's keynote »What Lies Underneath: Difficult Histories and the Resurgence of The Far Right«
7 Jun 2018 -
Anita Lasker Wallfisch: Auschwitz Never Left Me
Born in Breslau in 1925, Anita Lasker Wallfisch studied cello in Berlin from 1938. In 1942, Anita’s parents were deported to Izbica and murdered, and in 1943 Anita and her sister Renate were deported to Ausschwitz
Eyewitness Talks
28 May 2018 (video recording available, in German) -
Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem
8 May 2018
Author Menachem Klein in Conversation with Cilly Kugelmann -
Margot Friedländer: Try to Make Your Life
9 April 2018
Margot Friedländer was born in 1921 in Berlin and has had close ties with the museum for many years. She reads from her memoir, which takes its title from her mother’s last message to her: Try to Make Your Life. -
What is the Relationship Between Antisemitism and Islamophobia?
Lectures by David Feldman and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum
20 Mar 2018 -
The Book of Numbers
12 February 2018
Reading and Talk with the Author Joshua Cohen and Literary Scholar Jan Wilm -
Walter Frankenstein: Not with Us
31 January 2018
Born in 1924 in West Prussia, Walter Frankenstein lived in Berlin from 1936. When deportation threatened, he went into hiding with his wife and their five-week-old son. The family managed to survive with the help of friends. -
“And the day will come ...”
11 January 2018
Eyewitness Horst Selbiger in Conversation with Léontine Meijer-van Mensch -
Kurt Roberg: A Visa Or Your Life
Born 1924 in Celle, emigration at the end of 1938 via the Netherlands, return to Berlin in March 1941 and re-emigration in May 1941 via Lisbon to the USA, in German
Eyewitness Talks
4 Dec 2017 -
New Judaism – Alliances in Postmigrant Society
Discussion on concepts of being Jewish within the third generation of Jews in Germany (in German and English)
16 Nov 2017 -
Jews in Muslim Majority Countries
24 to 27 October 2017
International conference for scholars from different continents and academic disciplines, who discuss questions of culture, identity and memory of Jewish life in Arab and Muslim majority countries. -
Henry Wuga: A Nuremberger from Glasgow
Henry Wuga was born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father in Nuremberg in 1924. In 1938, his parents were able to send him to Scotland with a children’s transport and later in 1947, he could bring his mother, who had survived in hiding, to his home in Glasgow, in German
Eyewitness Talks
23 Oct 2017 -
Future Memories
Discussion on the Importance of Minority Perspectives for European Societies’ Commemorative Cultures (in German and English)
26 Sep 2017 -
Luther, Rosenzweig, and the Script
18 September 2017
Book Presentation and Discussion (in German) -
Between the Lines
9 September 2017
An Evening with Israeli and German Poets (in Hebrew and German) -
Religion. Fashion. Empowerment.
Discussion with Reina Lewis and Meriem Lebdiri (in German and English)
29 Jun 2017 -
Jews in North Africa During the Second World War
Theme day with lectures by Michel Abitbol, Eric Salerno, Patrick Bernhard, Haim Saadoun, and panel discussion
Language: German, English, and French
26 Jan 2017 -
“Nothing can Hurt Those who Already Died Once”- Discussion with Contemporary Witness Marko Feingold
With: Marko Feingold, Peter Schäfer, Uwe Neumärker
Language: German, no subtitles
10 Nov 2016 -
Sites of Memory: Lost and Entangled Narratives
With: Dr. Rosa Fava, Juliane Jurewicz, Prof. Dr. Iman Attia, Olga Gerstenberger, Ozan Keskinkiliç, Anita Awosusi, Ilona Lagrene, Prof. Dr. Michael Rothberg, and Serpil Polat
Language: German and English, no subtitlesConference
16 Sep 2016 -
Time of Crisis
With: Dan Diner, Adam Michnik, Dietmar Herz, Étienne François, and Hans Kundnani
Language: German, no subtitlesDiscussion
7 Sep 2016 -
Antisemitism in the Arabic World – Facts and Myths
With: Michael Kiefer and Omar Kamil
Language: German, no subtitles
26 Apr 2016 -
“Mich hat Auschwitz nie verlassen” (Auschwitz has never left me)
With: Renate Lasker-Harpprecht and Anita Lasker Wallfisch
Language: German, no subtitlesEyewitness Talks
1 Mar 2016 -
Post-migrant Society?!
International conference from 12 to 14 November 2015
Recording of the opening event
Language: German and English, no subtitles
12–14 Nov 2015 -
On Life – Working with People Traumatized by the Shoah
With: Giselle Cycowicz, Martin Auerbach and David Becker and Volker Beck
Language: German, no subtitlesPanel discussion
1 Oct 2015 -
Kill Me a Son!
Recording of the opening event
With: Prof. Dr. Peter Schäfer and Prof. Dr. Angelika Neuwirth
Language: German, no subtitles
3–4 Sep 2015 -
A Shared View of Europe – Jewish and Muslim Experiences as Reflected in Public Controversies
Panel discussion
With: Prof. Nilüfer Göle, Shai Lavi and Gökçe Yurdakul
Language: English, no subtitles
19 Jan 2015 -
Contemporary Jewish life in a global modernity
International conference
Recording of the presentation “Future of European Jewry”
With: Dr. Karen Körber and Dr. Diana Pinto
Language: English, no subtitles
11–12 Dec 2014 -
Snip it?!
Presentation of a study followed by a discussion, in German
With: Professor Kerem Öktem, Mounir Azzaoui, Dr. des. Alexander Hasgall, and Dr. des. Hannah C. Tzuberi.
4 Dec 2014 -
Concepts of Citizenship and Participation in European Comparison
Recording of the keynote by Prof. Dr. Rainer Bauböck and the followed panel discussion
With: Prof. Dr. Rainer Bauböck, Dr. Manuela Bojadžijev, Josip Juratovic and Dr. Monika Lüke
Language: German, no subtitlesLecture/Discussion
7–8 Apr 2014 -
Art and Culture in the Terezín Ghetto
Symposium on 2 March 2014
In four lectures, the symposium explores the history of Theresienstadt, the “ghetto of exceptions,” from four different angles.
With: Wolfgang Benz, Anna Hájková and Hanno Loewy
Language: German, no subtitles -
The Connected Audience
Conference from 27 February 2014 to 28 February 2014
With: John H. Falk
Language: English, no subtitles -
Is Higher Education a Safeguard Against Racism and Antisemitism?
Presentation of a study followed by panel discussion on 20 February 2014
With: Wassilis Kassis, Charlotte Schallié, Iman Attia, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and Andreas Zick
Language: German, no subtitlesLecture/Discussion
20 February 2014 -
“What do we mean when we say ‘antisemitism’?”
Keynote lecture, opening the conference Antisemitism in Europe Today: the Phenomena, the Conflicts
With: Brian Klug, in EnglishLecture/Discussion
8 Nov 2013 -
Circumcision: Identity Politics and / or Health Issue?
With: Sander L. Gilman, in Englisch
Lecture/Discussion
8 May 2013
