ANITA LASKER-WALLFISCH. COPY PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, (1939-1945)

The copy correspondence in this collection documents in part the experiences of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and her sisters in Bergen Belsen concentration camp and in England, 1945, and the experiences of their parents prior to transportation to certain death close to the Lublin Ghetto, 1942.

The correspondence was deposited in 4 files according to correspondent. This structure has been retained and the letters within each file have been arranged chronologically. All of the documents are copies.

<p>For an autobiography of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch see Inherit the Truth, 1939-1945, Giles de la Mare, 1996 and the Wiener Library Cuttings Collection, G15.</p>

• <persname>Lasker-Wallfisch, Anita, b 1925, Cellist</persname>
• <persname>Wallfisch, Lasker-, Anita, b 1925, cellist</persname>

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the youngest of three daughters of a Jewish family from Breslau, Silesia, managed to survive Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen along with her sister Renate, arriving at relatives in London together in 1946. Their other sister, Marianne, had emigrated to England in 1938. Their parents were transported to Izbica, near Lublin, in 1942 where they were almost certainly murdered.

Having been initially arrested in Breslau for aiding the escape of French forced labourers, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was later able to survive Auschwitz by playing the cello in the Auschwitz prisoners' orchestra. Towards the end of the war the sisters were transferred to Bergen Belsen where they remained for up to a year after liberation. During this time Anita was a witness at the Lüneburg trial where camp guards and Kapos were tried for their war crimes.