Les Derniers - Frania

Frania
Eisenbach

Frania Eisenbach

Frania Eisenbach was born on March 1, 1926, in Tarnów, a city in southern Poland. She came from a family of musicians: her father was a symphony conductor, and her mother played piano in the city’s cinemas. She had two older brothers, one of whom was a violinist. In September 1939, Tarnów was invaded by the Germans. When Frania’s father learned he was being hunted by the occupiers, he decided to flee. In 1941, Frania and the rest of her family were confined to the Tarnów Ghetto. She recalls horrific scenes — including discovering an entire family of friends murdered in their home, except for a baby lying among the bodies. In September 1943, during the liquidation of the ghetto, Frania was with her mother, but in the chaos she lost her hand and never saw her again. Frania was deported to the Plaszów camp, where she remained for eight months. In May 1944, she was sent to Auschwitz, where she was selected to repair clothing taken from murdered prisoners. In November 1944, she was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where she worked in a factory making machine parts, and later to Theresienstadt. At the end of the war, she made her way to France, arriving in Paris on June 10, 1945. Frania was the only survivor of a family of sixty. She told me, with deep emotion, that she still cries whenever she hears music — because it brings her back to her family and to the image of her mother’s fingers on the piano keys. [...+]

My visit to Frania

Clips

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Frania

« My mother squeezing my hand, and then... nothing »
Les Derniers - Frania
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Frania

« There was an 18-month-old baby who lying in a pool of blood screaming »

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