Life, Liberation and Legacy

80 years ago, the British Army liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The overcrowded camp held over 60,000 prisoners, and many of them were starving or mortally ill.

To commemorate the anniversary, members of the English Chamber Orchestra will perform Life, Liberation and Legacy, a programme of music reflecting on these themes, in IWM London’s Atrium. Everyone is invited to attend, listen to the performance, and remember and reflect on the Holocaust and its victims.

On 15 April 1945, a young Jewish cellist, Anita Lasker, was imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when it was liberated.
Anita had been arrested in 1942 and was sent to Auschwitz in 1943, there she played in the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, performing marches for the departure and arrival of forced labour workers. As Soviet forces approached Auschwitz in the closing months of the war, Anita and her sister, Renate, were transferred to Bergen-Belsen in a forced ‘Death March’ across Germany.

After Bergen-Belsen was liberated, it was visited by violinist Yehudi Menuhin and composer Benjamin Britten. They performed at the camp, which had a profound effect on Anita. Anita became an interpreter for the British Army and gave evidence at the Belsen Trials after the war ended. After moving to Britain she worked as a professional cellist, married her childhood friend and fellow musician Peter Wallfisch, and became a co-founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra.

The English Chamber Orchestra has performed across the globe for over 60 years and is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world.

Life, Liberation and Legacy devised and curated by Paul Sherman, will be performed three times throughout the day, and features music from composers including Benjamin Britten, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann and Hans Neumeyer, who died in the Holocaust.

The performances are free to attend, no booking is necessary.