An orchestra made up of prisoners like ourselves played rhythmic marches when we left the gate in the mornings and returned to the camp every evening. It was one of the most insane things about planet Auschwitz. Stirring music was so far removed from this horrible place, and the sounds of musical instruments where death, hunger and fear reigned supreme was particularly cynical. The orchestra accompanied our departure from the camp and our entry into it and we were forced to march in fives and in rhythm: left-right, left-right…
