Five photographs of members of the Representative Orchestra of the She'erit Hapletah. [Germany, the second half of the 1940s].
The Representative Orchestra of the She'erit Hapletah (also known as "The St. Ottilien Orchestra" and "The Ex-Concentration Camp Orchestra") was an orchestra of Jewish Holocaust survivors from DP camps conducted by Michael (Misha) Hofmekler. The first concert of the orchestra was held in 1945 at the St. Ottilien Monastery in Bavaria, which then served as a hospital and DP camp. From St. Ottilien, the orchestra moved to Landsberg and later expanded, changed its name and played in various locations in the American Zone in Germany. In May 1946, it was invited to play before the prosecutors and staff of the Nuremberg Trials. In May 1948, the orchestra performed in two concerts conducted by the well-known conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (then the conductor of the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra). For additional information about the orchestra, see enclosed article: Displaced Music: The Ex-Concentration Camp Orchestra in Postwar Germany, by Abbey Anderton (Journal of Musicological Research, 2015).
Before us are five photographs of the members of the orchestra: four group photographs and a photograph taken during the concert held by the orchestra for the prosecutors of the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. The photographs show members of the orchestra, including the conductor Michael (Misha) Hofmekler, in costumes made especially for their performances – concentration camp uniforms that were sewn for them after their liberation with their prisoner numbers on Stars of David.
5 photographs, approx. 6.5X9 cm. Good condition. A few stains (mostly on verso).