The next meeting of the Bibliophiles Book Club will take place Tuesday, October 20 at 6:30PM via ZOOM. The group will be discussing The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz by Anne Sebba.

“In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to other inmates, forced laborers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the harshest of circumstances, with little more than a bowl of soup to eat, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra saved their lives. But at what cost?

What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba traces these tangled questions of deep moral complexity with sensitivity and care.

From Alma Rosé, the orchestra's main conductor, niece of Gustav Mahler and a formidable pre-war celebrity violinist, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, its teenage cellist and last surviving member, Sebba draws on meticulous archival research and exclusive first-hand accounts to tell the full and astonishing story of the orchestra, its members, and the response of other prisoners for the first time.”

As we approach that date, Fred Adams will provide information for the ZOOM link. Remember, everyone is welcome to attend and participate even if you haven’t read the selected book. Please join us for the lively discussion and commentary.

Contact Fred Adams or the Parish Office for details on participating with the Bibliophiles.

Fred Adams penned the following invitation to encourage all of us to participate in the Bibliophile's Book Club:

"We the members of the mighty Bibliophiles Book Club of Saint Matthias humbly invite you to join us. Recognizing how busy we all are in our daily lives and work, we have changed our meetings from every month to every 6 weeks beginning on June 3rd. Whew! I feel relieved already. Now that we have more breathing room perhaps more folks can break free for some refreshing conversations and fellowship. We will still meet at 6:30 pm on Zoom. 

The meetings are pretty lively and let me publish once again this well-known fact. You do not have to have read the book! What? -- a book club meeting without having read the book? Yes, indeed. And here's why. While the conversation starts out with a discussion about the book, it inevitably evolves into the larger issues brought out by the author; topics about which each of us often have something to add. So, there is something for everyone!"

Contact Fred or the Parish Office for details on participating with the Bibliophiles.

"Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!"

Dr. Seuss