Esther Bejarano has undoubtedly had way more than her fair share of suffering. The 85-year old is one of the few remaining survivors of the Auschwitz Womens' Orchestra, and one of the few people to survive the notorious Nazi concentration camp in general. As part of the camp's orchestra, 18-year old Bejarano was often forced to perform whenever trains full of prisoners rolled in to Auschwitz. Now, she's returned to playing music--this time, though, she's got a much different message.
As Spiegel Online reports, Bejerano has decided to form a brand new band, called 'Coincidence,' with her son and daughter. Instead of playing classical or even pop music, though, Coincidence is all about hip hop--and they're all about their message. On their recently released debut album, Bejarano and Coincidence rap about the perils of fascism, in an effort to remind a younger generation of the horrors that befell the world less than 100 years ago. As Bejerano says, "I know this hip hop stuff is popular among the youth. I thought if we worked together, then young people could learn more about what happened back then." And there may be no one better spokes-rapper than Bejerano, and her well of human experience. Recalling her past, she says, "I saw lots of bad things and experienced horrifying things, but the fact that we had to stand there and play when the trains brought people to the gas chambers -- and we knew where they were going, and they didn't know at all. That is something I will never forget. It was terrible."
