Untold Stories: An evening with Louisa Treger & Anne Sebba - Trafalgar Sq

Join us in welcoming Anne Sebba and Louisa Treger in conversation to celebrate their latest publications 'The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz' and 'The Paris Muse'. Discover the untold stories of women whose artistry became their means of survival interwoven with art as a vice to preserve identity and memory in the face of dehunamisation and the destruction of European cultural heritage.
The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends?In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were assembled to play marching music to other inmates - forced labourers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day - and give weekly concerts for Nazi officers. Individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances of an officer's favourite piece of music. It was the only entirely female orchestra in any of the Nazi Pr*son camps and, for almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra was to save their lives.
Anne Sebba is a historian and one of Britain's most distinguished biographers making regular television and radio appearances and has presented two BBC radio documentaries about musicians. She is the author of the international bestseller That Woman, an acclaimed biography of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and the prize-winning Les Parisiennes. Ethel Rosenberg: The Short Life and Great Betrayal of an American Wife and Mother, was also shortlisted for the Wingate Prize. Anne is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research and trustee of the National Archives Trust.
The Paris Muse‘Living with him was like living at the centre of the universe. It was electrifying and humbling, blissful and destructive, all at the same time.’Paris, 1936. When Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is instantly mesmerized. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn’t long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that ultimately pushes her to the edge.A wonderfully atmospheric, intense and astonishing novel about Dora Maar – the artist, creative genius and muse who inspired some of Pablo Picasso’s greatest work – and about their love affair that broke her.
Louisa Treger is the acclaimed author of four novels, The Lodger (2014), The Dragon Lady (2019) Madwoman (2022), a historical fiction Book of the Year in The Times and The Sunday Times, and a Book of the Month in the Independent, and The Paris Muse (2024). She has written for The Times, The Telegraph, Tatler, BBC History Magazine and English Heritage. Radio appearances include BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking Programme, and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Treger has a First Class degree and a PhD in English Literature from UCL, and currently lives in London.

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