{"id":105136,"date":"2021-07-13T19:34:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T00:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=105136"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:40:43","slug":"remembering-esther-lowy-bejarano-december-15-1924-july-10-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=105136","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Esther L\u00f6wy B\u00e9jarano (December 15, 1924 \u2013 July 10, 2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLiberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right \u2026 and a desire to know.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 John Adams, 1765<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=105136\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=105136\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-105137 size-medium\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/esther-bejarano-bei-einem-fernsehauftritt-2019-202107101109-full-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/esther-bejarano-bei-einem-fernsehauftritt-2019-202107101109-full-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/esther-bejarano-bei-einem-fernsehauftritt-2019-202107101109-full.jpg 596w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By Michelle L. Warmath<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Those of you who have seen the 1980 Arthur Miller movie \u201cPlaying for Time\u201d will remember that it is based on the memories of one of the survivors of the women\u2019s orchestra that was organized in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from 1943 to November 1944.<\/p>\n<p>Today I would like to honor the memory of one of the last survivors of that orchestra, Ms. Esther B\u00e9jarano (n\u00e9e L\u00f6wy), who passed away peacefully in Hamburg, Germany recently at the age of 96.<\/p>\n<p>Esther B\u00e9jarano was born in Sarrlouis, on the western border of Germany, in 1924. Her father was a cantor and led prayers at the synagogue. Esther was encouraged to take up music and learned to play the piano, and the family moved to Saarbrucken on the German-French border a few years after she was born.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In 1939, when she was 15, Esther was sent to the Nazi labor camp in Neuendorf, near the Polish border, after having tried unsuccessfully to flee Germany to Palestine. Her parents and sister Ruth were also deported and were killed. Esther performed forced labor in Neuendorf for two years. In the spring of 1943, the prisoners in this camp were all removed to Auschwitz-Birkenau in southwestern Poland.<\/p>\n<p>At Birkenau Esther was forced to haul large stones until the Women\u2019s Orchestra was formed by the head female SS guard in the camp at the time, Maria Mandl. Esther played the accordion in this orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>Many concentration camps had men\u2019s orchestras. Their role was to play music to accompany the prisoners leaving for work in the mornings and returning in the evenings, and to entertain the SS officers and other important personalities on Sundays and \u201cspecial occasions\u201d, but also to play whenever, and in whatever weather, the camp officers believed would be helpful to keep order in the camp, including during the \u201cselection\u201d of arriving deportees for camp tasks or extermination. The musicians remained subject to selection themselves even though being a member of the orchestra offered them a certain status that meant that they were usually spared.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the orchestras were permitted improvements in their lives at the camps, such as better rations and more adequate living quarters, but this and their performances, especially during particularly horrible moments, incurred the animosity of their fellow prisoners. The musicians themselves were often disgusted and depressed at having to entertain their captors and at being forced to play while others suffered and died, and a number of musicians committed suicide.<\/p>\n<p>But while Birkenau also had a men\u2019s orchestra, it was the only camp that organized a women\u2019s orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>The women\u2019s orchestra started out with about 20 women who were chosen for their musical skills. It grew in both number and experience over the months, reaching almost 50 members. After the death of conductor and violinist Alma Ros\u00e9, who had played an important role in protecting the musicians and ensuring the continuity of the orchestra, it declined and in October 1944 it was disbanded.<\/p>\n<p>In November 1944 Esther B\u00e9jarano, along with the other Jewish members of the orchestras, was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and in January 1945 they were transferred to the Ravensbruck labor camp. Shortly thereafter, in an attempt to conceal the camp\u2019s activities and prisoners from the approaching Soviet troops, over 24,000 prisoners were forced on a death march to Mecklenburg in the north, in appalling conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Esther was one of the only 3,500 survivors of that march. After the war she emigrated to Palestine, but in 1960, she and her husband and family returned to Germany where she actively spoke out against fascism and racism. She was a co-founder of the International Auschwitz Committee, in which she was very active, and wrote several autobiographies. Through music, including Jewish folk music and hip-hop, she worked to inspire younger generations to stand up against fascism.<\/p>\n<p>Esther B\u00e9jarano was highly regarded in Germany and received a number of awards including the Cross of Merit and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In recent years she warned about the rise of the extreme right and other groups with fascist and nationalist goals. She always reminded young people that \u201cYou are not guilty of what happened back then. But you become guilty if you refuse to listen to what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>May she rest in well-deserved peace and may her memory always inspire us to carry her work forward.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808000;\"><em><strong>Till next time,<\/strong><\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #808000;\"><em><strong>Be safe, everyone.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Barry Livingston 360 Conversation: My Three Sons,  Movies, TV, Charles M. Schulz,  Peanuts &amp; More\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vPvZ9JUv9vY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F105136\" data-token=\"657dcd84187d84d6524d05c85ad247bb\" data-token-time=\"1777670240\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div>\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >Message Comment or<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; 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Warmath Those of you who have seen the 1980 Arthur Miller movie \u201cPlaying for Time\u201d will remember that it is based on the memories of one of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18030],"tags":[26932,24452,26931],"class_list":["post-105136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news","tag-1924-july-10","tag-24452","tag-remembering-esther-lowy-bejarano-december-15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105136"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}