New Release
1
of
1
Inherit the Truth
The Cellist of Auschwitz's Memoir of Survival
Brief Description
Although my head was shaved and I had a number on my arm, I had not lost my identity totally. I may no longer have had a name, but I was identifiable. I was 'the cellist'. Eighteen-year-old Anita was plucked out of the Nazi death machine...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3299
$3799
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY
Found a better price? Request a price match
Inherit the Truth
$3299
$3799
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Told in her own words, this is the incredible true story of one young woman's survival of Auschwitz and Belsen because she happened to play the cello.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Although my head was shaved and I had a number on my arm, I had not lost my identity totally. I may no longer have had a name, but I was identifiable. I was 'the cellist'.
Eighteen-year-old Anita was plucked out of the Nazi death machine as she arrived at Auschwitz by a twist of fate: she played the cello, and the camp orchestra needed a cellist. This is her incredible story in her own words.
The Laskers were a talented Jewish family who could not find a way out of Germany despite intense efforts to get to safety abroad. Told through Anita's sharp-etched memories, alongside family letters and other historical documents, Inherit the Truth is a portrait of how their everyday lifeβcello and Latin grammar lessons, reading books as a familyβturned by degrees to one of unimaginable horror.
Anita takes us into one of humanity's darkest chapters, where we are forced to confront the fragility of the line between civilisation and barbarity, and the absurd cruelty of a regime in which one minute a person might be expecting their death, and the next handed an orchestral instrument and asked to do an audition. With her exacting musical demands, the orchestra's conductor succeeded in temporarily distracting the musicians from the realities of living in an extermination camp.
Anita's account of her and her older sister Renate's survival of both Auschwitz and Belsen is a testament to their remarkable courage, resilience, ingenuity and luck, and it reminds us of the monstrous truth of what happened, not all that long ago, in a country not unlike our own.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780571403806
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 28 April 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 216.0mm
Height: 138.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 272
About the Author
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was brought up in Breslau, Silesia, the daughter of a distinguished lawyer, Alfons Lasker, whose brother Edward became a U.S. chess champion. At the age of thirteen she studied the cello with Leo Rostal in Berlin, until the Kristallnacht (1938) forced her to return home. After surviving the war, she emigrated to England; in 1949 she became a founder member of the English Chamber Orchestra. She married the pianist Peter Wallfisch, and has two children, Maya and Raphael, who is also a celebrated cellist.
More from History & Military
View all-
Saving Elli
One child. Two years in hiding. Three lives in mortal danger. In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, near Anne Frank's house, another Jewish girl is hidden. Her name is Elli. Her father has been executed at Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother is fleeing for her life. Elli is next. To save her, resistance couple Frits and Jo Hakkens must risk everything, concealing her...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Spy and the Traitor
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is a spellbinding Cold War thriller that unravels the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who risked everything to aid the British in the battle against Soviet oppression. In meticulously researched detail, Macintyre paints a vivid portrait of espionage, double-crossing, and unparalleled bravery, giving readers a riveting glimpse into...Paperback$2100Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseSuicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Man's Search For Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is a profound, thought-provoking memoir and psychological exploration that delves into the harrowing experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, intertwined with the authorβs groundbreaking theories on existential psychology. The book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, offering a beacon of hope and a roadmap for finding purpose...Paperback$1800Elsewhere:$2100Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Betrayal
βTom Bower is the Inspector Morse of investigative biographers, a fluent, phlegmatic storyteller and a master of intricacies.β Sunday Times The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. At a landmark moment in royal history, can King Charles overcome the scandals that blight the Royal family? Can the broken bonds between the Houses of Sussex...Paperback$3499Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Chief and the Empire
The Chief and the Empire uncovers the extraordinary true tale of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi - the first influential MΔori leader to cross the Tasman - whose curiosity about the PΔkehΔ world forged alliances, saved lives, and ultimately cost him his own. On a visit to Sydney in 1805, Te Pahi was feted as a celebrity, building close...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Discipline
Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...Paperback$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Shattered Lands
'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' β PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation β¦ both original and important' β MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia β India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...Paperback$3699Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Goliathβs Curse
Goliathβs Curse by Luke Kemp offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, delving into what this means for our uncertain future. This narrative spans from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. It's grounded in the latest research and a comprehensive database of more than 440...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Good Settler
βWhere once I saw a view as I drove around the Taranaki coast along State Highway 45, I now see confiscated land from an invasion road. The creation story I used to subscribe to, the one in which hard-working people came here and settled the land, now jars. Weirdly, even the lawn looks different. The form of things just wonβt...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Banjara
A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
This Way Up
The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men! In their long-awaited debut, YouTubeβs Map Men bring their highly infectious enthusiasm for everything map-related to the printed page for the very first time, in a brilliantly entertaining and eye-catching tome. Packed with humour and fascinating facts, This Way Up takes a deep dive into the...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
