Esther’s Traces

Esther Bejarano (1924-2021), survivor, musician and anti-fascist was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 18. She was forced to play the accordion in the infamous »Auschwitz Girls’ Orchestra«, was later sent to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and escaped a death march at the end of the war. For the rest of her life, she fought against the German forgetfulness of history. Benet Lehmann had many conversations with her and retraces her life with the help of current research and gives context within recent societal developments. What impact does the legacy of survivors have today? What does it mean to relate cultures of remembrance to each other in a post-migrant society? Who remembers whom and why? And above all: does a culture of remembrance help to combat anti- semitism and racism?

Benet Lehmann, born in 1997, studied History, English and Art History in Hamburg, Berlin and Jerusalem and is currently writing a doctoral thesis on photographs from the Second World War and their significance for today’s culture of remembrance. The research Benet did for »Esther’s Traces« was honoured with the ›Humboldt-Preis‹ of Humboldt Universität Berlin and ›Silten Preis‹ for Holocaust research. Benet Lehmann also contributes to newspapers and magazines.