"Crying is Forbidden Here!"
A testimony of the women's orchestra of Auschwitz

In the dark world of 65 years ago, in the shadow of Auschwitz gas chambers and crematoria, a group of women stood and played music. Rachel Zelmanowicz was there too, a skinny and frightened girl. Her detailed testimony out of the "other planet" of death is published now.
Rachel Zelmanowicz was born in Bendzin, Poland, 8 October 1921.
On September 1st 1939, a month before her 18th birthday, war broke out. Rachela lived in the ghetto until she was deported to Auschwitz with her father and brother. Her father was murdered the same day they arrived to Auschwitz, which was also his birthday.
A shy girl, who played the mandolin only in the elementary school, she was pushed by her brother's fiancée to join the orchestra at Auschwitz, conducted by well-known violinist Alma Rose'. Alma and the orchestra were the only chance of Rachela to escape certain death. Rachela played in great fear as she never played. Outside, death raged as Dr. Mengele was selecting people, but in the Block the orchestra was rehearsing. Her brother took part in the Sonderkommando prisoners' revolt, and was murdered right after the failure of the revolt.
At the end of 1944 the Jewish girls of the orchestra were deported to Bergen-Belsen, where hunger and disease were taking lives of tens of thousands of peoples. In April 1945 the British army released the notorious camp, and started a fierce struggle to save the rest of the survivors from dying of starvation and disease.
Rachela sought to immigrate to Palestine, but on her way she met Raphael Olewski, a handsome young man of a distinguished rabbinical family from Poland. He was one of the prominent leaders of the survivors of Bergen-Belsen. They married and gave birth to their daughter Yochi. In 1949 the Zionist family came to Israel, and here was born their son Arie.
The story of the women's orchestra was unknown for years, until in the 1980s people started to deal with it in literarture, theater, radio and TV. Some books, plays and opera told the story of these amazing women's group. The first book was written in France by one of the survivors, later a play was written by Shmuel Hasfari, and Hollywood produced a film with the British actress Vanessa Redgrave.
In recent years, an extensive academic research about "Women in the Holocaust" was witnessed. Israeli Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra dedicated concert series to the story of this special orchestra and its legendary conductor, Alma Rose'.
Rachela Zelmanowicz-Olewski was interviewed by Yad Vashem and gave detailed testimony. Now her son and daughter made the testimony public, translated it into English and added some fascinating photos and documents, including a 60 years old "Hello from Hell" – an index working card of Rachela recorded by the SS in Auschwitz.
The testimony sheds light on the fascinating phenomenon that took place in the darkness of "other planet" of Auschwitz, and adds an authentic first-hand description for academic research in Israel and abroad.
The first Hebrew book and English book were published privately and were printed in limited edition - courtesy of Bank Leumi - in the Open University of Israel in Ra'anana.
ISBN 978-965-91217-2-4
Arie Olewski, P.O. Box 8199
61081 Tel-Aviv Israel
ariolew@gmail.com