"At Auschwitz, Alma led a women's orchestra - the only women's musical ensemble in the Nazi camps. With violin and baton, steely will and dauntless spirit, she molded a terrified collection of young musicians into an orchestra that became their sole hope of survival. The orchestra women maintained high standards and discipline to play music for the pleasure of their Nazi captors; in exchange they remained alive. Alma saved the lives of some four dozen members of the orchestra; not one was sent to the gas, though she herself died in the camp of sudden illness. "--BOOK JACKET.