Lesson Plan 3:
The Cellist
In this lesson, students will watch two clips from the documentary, The Last Musician of Auschwitz, both focusing on the Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the last living member of the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra. The first clip shows her son performing Träumerei (Dreams) on the cello, the same piece she was forced to play in front of the Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele. The second clip focuses on Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s lifesaving identity as the cellist.
Grades: 8-12
This lesson plan is designed for teachers and students working at an introductory level. If your students are just beginning their study of the Holocaust, we suggest looking at the following pre-teaching resources:
Holocaust Encyclopedia from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)
Yad Vashem Teaching Materials
If you are interested in doing further research into specific topics mentioned in this lesson plan, we suggest the following resources:
About Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
About Josef Mengele and Medical Experiments
Starting in October 2025, you will be able to stream the full-length documentary, The Last Musician of Auschwitz, for free via BBC Select to prepare your classes.
For definitions of Holocaust terms, you can visit the USHMM Glossary or the Museum of Jewish Heritage Curriculum Glossary. All the specific terms mentioned in this lesson plan are also explained at the end.
You can also explore further resources about the Holocaust and Antisemitism on the Center for Jewish History website.
Träumerei (Dreams) is the title of a piano piece by the German composer, Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Schumann is considered one of the most important figures of the Romantic era (an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century).
Träumerei is the centerpiece of a 13-part piano cycle called Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood). It has become one of Schumann’s most beloved and best-known works.
The Nazi regime tried to claim Schumann’s music as a symbol of “true German” culture, using it to promote a romanticized vision of the past. In 1944, the Nazis even released a propaganda biopic about Robert and his wife, Clara Schumann, titled Träumerei.
In the documentary, Träumerei (Dreams) is performed on cello by Raphael Wallfisch, the son of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.
Introduce your students to some basic information about Auschwitz and the Nazi camp system. If your students are new to studying the Holocaust, you can provide additional historical context by sharing some information from the USHMM’s Introduction to the Holocaust.
Quick-Write Prompt: Give students 3 minutes to jot down what comes to mind when they hear the title of the documentary, The Last Musician of Auschwitz.
Background: The title refers to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, as of 2025 the only living member of the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra.
Prepare your students by setting the context. They are going to watch two clips from the documentary, The Last Musician of Auschwitz.
If you want, you can give students background about the biography of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch before showing the clips. You can also show them this photo of her as a 13-year-old with a cello. When she was a cellist in the Auschwitz concentration camp, she was 19 years old.
For the first clip, explain to students that they will see a performance of Raphael Wallfisch playing Träumerei (Dreams) on cello.
It is the same piece of music that his mother, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, was forced to play in front of the infamous Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele, while she was a prisoner member of the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra.
Students will also hear both Raphael Wallfisch and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch discuss the time Anita was forced to play in front of Mengele, and see historical footage of children at play, because Träumerei (Dreams) is about children. [Please note: This footage is not from Auschwitz, it just shows regular children at play in black/white footage.]
Class discussion:
Note: If there is confusion, you might have to explain the part of the quote by Anita Lasker-Wallfisch where she says, “Get out.” She did not actually tell Josef Mengele to get out but thought this inwardly. Saying such a thing out loud and thus verbally attacking an SS officer would have resulted in severe punishment or even execution for a concentration camp prisoner.
Now set the context for watching the second clip which shows Anita Lasker-Wallfisch talking about what it meant to be the cellist in Auschwitz.
Stress that this is not the actual Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, but a young actress playing her. [Note: The quotes were taken from her autobiography.]
After showing both clips, ask students if they have any questions. You might need to explain to them what a gas chamber is.
If you haven’t done so before showing the clips, you can now give students additional background about the biography of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. If you want, you can show them this photo of her as a 13-year-old with a cello.
Optional: If you already used Lesson Plan 2: Arrival in Auschwitz with your students, you can take a moment to refer back to the feeling of becoming a number and completely losing your identity. Now, discuss the difference of having an identity.
Divide the students into pairs or groups.
Hand out a different worksheet to each group. (There are three worksheets with quotes from autobiographical writings of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Teacher note: As you assign material to groups, please keep in mind that the first quote is easier to interpret than the others.)
Allow the groups at least 10 minutes to examine the materials and discuss their findings.
Then have students discuss the following questions (also printed on the worksheets):
Have each pair/group present their answers. Write down main themes on the blackboard.
If you want to spend more than one lesson on the story of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, you can:
Auschwitz – complex of three Nazi camps established between 1940 and 1942. Originally a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, it grew into the largest site of mass murder in the Holocaust.
Block – in the context of concentration camps, a Block was a prisoner barrack where inmates lived in extremely overcrowded and harsh conditions.
Concentration Camp – place where large groups of people, often political prisoners or minorities, were imprisoned without trial, usually under harsh conditions. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites (including ghettos).
Deportation – forced removal and transportation of populations (primarily Jews and also Roma and political opponents) by the Nazis to ghettos, concentration camps, or killing centers, often in overcrowded freight or cattle cars under brutal conditions.
Gas chambers – specially constructed rooms in the Nazi Killing Centers (or death camps) designed to carry out the murder of European Jewry.
Holocaust - a word of Greek origin meaning complete destruction, especially by fire. The word is used to describe the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.
Josef Mengele – a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz known for performing cruel and deadly medical experiments on prisoners, especially twins and children.
Medical Experiments (in concentration camps) – procedures and tests carried out by Nazi doctors on prisoners during the Holocaust, without consent and under brutal conditions. These experiments included exposure to extreme temperatures, infectious diseases, sterilization methods, and testing of drugs or treatments, and often resulted in the death of the prisoners.
Nazi – a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party that took political control of Germany under Adolf Hitler in 1933, after gaining mass popular support. The Nazi Party was violently antisemitic. In addition to Jews, Nazi persecution was directed toward Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and political enemies of the Nazi Party.
Orchestra – an ensemble of musicians playing together.
Revier – in the context of concentration camps, the Revier was the camp infirmary or sickbay.
Selection – the process where SS doctors decided who would be forced into labor and who would be sent to immediate death.
SS (Schutzstaffel, or Protection Squads) – originally established as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard unit. It would later become both the elite guard of the Nazi Party and Hitler’s executive force prepared to carry out all security-related duties, without regard for legal restraint. The SS was responsible for enforcing racial policies and running concentration camps.