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In this chapter Eischeid presents a thorough exploration of the response of the other survivors in the Auschwitz-Birkenau women’s orchestra to the Fenelon Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Materials from 1976 through to the present day are utilized, including personal correspondence between musicians, interviews by press and television, and documentary footage. This chapter also details the press response as the memoir expanded into the world market. Press reviews, both positive and negative, are explored, as are the initial television interviews with Fenelon on programs such as CBS television’s 60 Minutes.

In this chapter, Eischeid describes the formation and realization of the only all-female orchestra in the Nazi camp system. Recruitment for the organization is detailed, as well as the orchestra’s living conditions, personnel, and repertoire. Although focusing on the prisoner musicians, the chapter also explores the sponsorship of the orchestra by leading camp officials Franz Hossler and Maria Mandl. Important members of the ensemble are introduced, including conductor Alma Rose, niece of famed composer Gustav Mahler. The chapter closes with the ultimate dissolution of the orchestra and the fate of the survivors.

Whenever doubt is cast on the veracity of a Holocaust memoir, such as Fania Fenelon’s Playing for Time, there is often a reluctance to challenge the account. However, if any areas of concern are not addressed, such accounts become fodder for historical revisionists who deny the Holocaust. In this chapter Eischeid examines several other prominent memoirs which have subsequently been discredited (Wilkomirski, Defonseca, Rosenblat), as well as respected memoirs such as Elie Wiesel’s Night which have endured their share of criticism. Eischeid explores the similarities and differences in Fenelon’s account to all these works, and thereby reinforces her critical examination of the memoir.

In this chapter Eischeid continues her expose of the many issues of distortion and embellishment contained in Fenelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Topics addressed include rehearsal hours and night work, the controversy over Fenelon’s age and its significance, false repertoire claims, fear of retribution for bad performance, false portrayals of Josef Kramer and Josef Mengele and the sexualization of the SS, embellished or manufactured details about major camp events, the inaccurate portrayal of Oberaufseherin Maria Mandl, and the untrue representations of other Auschwitz prisoners including Zofia Czajkowska, Fanny Birkenwald, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Helene Scheps, Violette Jacquet Silberstein, and the Ovitz dwarf family.

In the years after the appearance of Fania Fenelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time, other members of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau began to publish their own remembrances. These served the dual purpose of providing more accurate representations of themselves and of rebutting the distorted elements in Fenelon’s account. In this chapter Eischeid details some of these other memoirs, and gives an update on the women and their lives. Featured musicians include Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Helena Dunicz Niwinska, Violette Jacquet Silberstein, Esther Bejarano, Rachela Zelmanowicz Olewski, Hilde Grunbaum Simche and Flora Schrijver Jacobs. The emotional legacy of Fania Fenelon’s memoir has also extended to the children of the other survivors and Eischeid additionally explores these longer term legacies.

In this chapter Eischeid brings to a conclusion her study analyzing and rebutting the Holocaust memoir Playing for Time by Fania Fenelon. The final thoughts of survivor Helena Niwinska, are included, as are Fenelon’s own words questioning the veracity of her portrayal in the television movie and her reflections on the choices she made in the portrayals of the other women in the orchestra. The closing words are expressed by survivor Fanny Birkenwald who gives voice to colleagues and friends long unheard.

Fania Fenelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time continues to inspire a variety of artistic productions. In this chapter Eischeid details the productions inspired by Fenelon’s work. She reveals how pervasive Fania’s story has become and the ramifications of that exposure for presenting a true picture and remembrance of what the women’s orchestra was really like. The further response of the surviving members to these new productions is explored, as is their continued dismay at the popularity of Fenelon’s work. In every way these ongoing productions exemplify the problems inherent in the Playing for Time legacy: largely unconditional acceptance of the primary source, or the dismissal of any concerns of veracity in favor of an artistic vision.

In this chapter, Eischeid synopsizes the major concerns. Aspects of false promotion, misrepresentations of the personality and character of the other musicians, and their initial response to Fenelon’s work, are explored. Resources utilized in the critical analysis of the memoir are detailed, as is input from 17 other members of the orchestra. Data utilized includes live interviews, personal correspondence, archival testimonies, press coverage, documentary footage, annotated copies of Fenelon’s memoir, and correspondence with descendants.

In this chapter Eischeid answers the question, “Who was Fania Fenelon?” Fenelon’s personal biography is detailed as well as the impetus behind the creation of her Holocaust memoir. Co-author Marcelle Routier’s involvement is explored, as are the initial versions and subsequent editions of Playing for Time including Sursis pour l’orchestre, The Musicians of Auschwitz, and Das Madchenorchester in Auschwitz.

In this chapter Eischeid details the inception and production of the CBS television film based on Fania Fenelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Major figures in its development are discussed, including executive producer Linda Yellen, and famed playwright Arthur Miller, who was engaged to write the screenplay. Additionally, the controversy over the hiring of actress Vanessa Redgrave to play the role of Fania is explored. Fenelon’s subsequent rejection of the film and the way it presented her story is detailed, as is the premiere of the film and the subsequent emotional fall-out for the other survivors who had fought valiantly to prevent its broadcast.

In this chapter Eischeid discusses her two primary goals in exposing the manufactured incidents and embellishments in Fania Fenelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Eischeid’s first goal is to reveal how deeply embedded many of these embellishments are in Holocaust scholarship, writing, and remembrance and how they are now accepted as truth. The intent is absolutely not to criticize respected Holocaust scholars and institutions, rather to change the way in which Fenelon’s work is utilized and cited. The second goal of Eischeid’s study is to insure that the voices of Fania’s colleagues in the orchestra are fully heard—at last—and that their testimonies assume equal weight in the pantheon of remembrance.

Eischeid offers a fresh perspective into Fania Fenelon’s background and her personal biographical claims in this chapter. Issues discussed include her purported time in the French Resistance, her alleged torture by the Gestapo, and smaller anomalies from her personal history.