Esther Bejarano, one of the last survivors of the women's orchestra at Auschwitz, who devoted her life to fighting antisemitism with music, died Saturday at the age of 96.
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"Esther Bejarano survived Auschwitz because she played accordion in the camp's orchestra," tweeted Meron Mendel, head of the Anne Frank Education Centre. "She dedicated her life to music and to the fight against racism and antisemitism."
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted: "An important voice in the fight against racism and antisemitism has left us."
Born in the then-French-controlled German town of Sarrelouis in 1924, Bejarano was deported to the Nazi extermination camp in April 1943, before being transferred to another camp in Ravensbrueck in November of that same year. The Nazis murdered her parents and sister.
After the defeat of the Nazi regime in 1945, Bejarano moved to Israel (then, under British rule) and lived there for over a decade before returning to her native Germany.
With her daughter Edna and son Joram, Bejarano created the musical group "Coincidence," which sang songs from the ghetto and in Hebrew as well as anti-fascist songs. She was also the co-founder and chairman of the International Auschwitz Committee and honorary chairperson of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime.
Bejarano was also awarded, among other things, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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