Playing for the Commandant

by Suzy Zail Narrated by Emily Foster

Overview

A young Jewish pianist at Auschwitz, desperate to save her family, is chosen to play at the camp commandant's house. How could she know she would fall in love with the wrong boy?

"Look after each other...and get home safe. And when you do, tell everyone what you saw and what they did to us."

These are Hanna's father's parting words to her and her sister when their family is separated at the gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Her father's words-and a black C-sharp piano key hidden away in the folds of her dress-are all that she has left to remind her of life before. Before, Hanna was going to be a famous concert pianist. She was going to wear her yellow dress to a dance. And she was going to dance with a boy. But then the Nazis came. Now it is up to Hanna to do all she can to keep her mother and sister alive, even if that means playing piano for the commandant and his guests. Staying alive isn't supposed to include falling in love with the commandant's son. But Karl Jager is beautiful, and his aloofness belies a secret. And war makes you do dangerous things.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2014
The world of 15-year-old Hanna Mendel—a Jewish Hungarian concert pianist in training who longs to follow in the footsteps of her idol, Clara Schumann—turns menacing when Hungary falls to Germany in 1944. New laws require Jews there to wear yellow stars on their clothes and live in ghettos, and, before long, she, along with many others, is sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Zail, whose memoir The Tattooed Flower recounted how her father survived the Holocaust, poignantly conveys Hanna’s mounting losses—at first, her home, piano, suitcase, and clothes; then, when men are separated from women in the camp, her father; and even her hair and her name. Strengthened by Erika, her spirited sister, Hanna holds onto her one remaining possession: a black C-sharp piano key, and the hope it represents. Although she witnesses much cruelty and degradation, Hanna also discovers courage, integrity, and ingenuity in surprising ways; in particular, through Karl, the quiet, musical son of the cruel commandant for whom Hanna plays piano, who calls her “by my name, not my number.” An elegant, disturbing portrait of one of history’s bleakest moments, offset by the subversive power of love. Ages 12–up. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

Zail, whose memoir The Tattooed Flower recounted how her father survived the Holocaust, poignantly conveys Hanna’s mounting losses... An elegant, disturbing portrait of one of history’s bleakest moments, offset by the subversive power of love.
—Publishers Weekly

Zail’s story is as gut-wrenching as any Holocaust tale, particularly when, upon their liberation by Russian troops, Hanna discovers that her own dehumanizing experiences in the labor camp were nothing compared to the barbarity that occurred in the extermination camps. The haunting, matter-of-fact tone of Hanna’s story will likely resonate with teens learning about the Holocaust.
—Booklist

Hanna's story is reminiscent of such classics as Aranka Siegal's Upon the Head of the Goat (1981). ... With fewer living Holocaust survivors each year, it's increasingly important to tell their story, and this is one.
—Kirkus Reviews

Readers also feel the pressure as Hanna tries to please the commandant while witnessing his brutality. ... The novel will appeal to a wide range of readers.
—Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

Reviewed.
—School Library Journal

School Library Journal - Audio

02/01/2015
Gr 7 Up—Walnuts, a single egg, a raw potato: these items spelled the difference between life and death for the Jewish inmates in Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Holocaust. Fifteen-year-old Hanna is an aspiring musician from an upper-class family in Hungary when the Nazis invade and forcefully evict Hanna and her parents and her sister from their home. Hanna is able to survive because she is selected to be the Nazi commandant's personal pianist. In this unlikely scenario, she travels each day to his home and smuggle food back into the concentration camp each evening. She falls in love with Karl, the commandant's son; but considering the circumstances there is no "happily ever after" for the two. Emily Foster narrates the book with conviction and empathy. There are many references to music, and although there is no actual music playing in the background, listeners feel the spirit and the comfort music brings through the narrator's inflections and tone. This book gives listeners insight into some of the horrors suffered without going into the gruesome details. VERDICT Recommended to those who enjoy historical fiction and stories where music drives the plot.—Ellen Frank, Flushing High School Library, NJ

School Library Journal

10/01/2014
Gr 8 Up—It's 1944, and 15-year-old pianist Hanna and her family have been taken from their Hungarian Jewish ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Having lied about her age, Hanna is selected to play piano for the camp leader, or commandant, a job she hopes will help her save her mother and sister. Captain Jager's casual cruelty contrasts with his son Karl's sensitive compassion, and soon Hanna and Karl develop a secret attraction. The teen feels like a traitor for liking Karl, her fellow prisoners despise her for cooperating with the commandant, and Russian liberators are approaching—and with them, truths that Hanna has refused to acknowledge. An oddly adult voice (Hanna says that playing a duet is "like taking a lover") gives way to more typical teenage reactions as the story progresses, but questionable historical accuracies persist: while the protagonist technically could have had a bat mitzvah, studied algebra, and casually carried a thermos, these seem unlikely. Musical details add interest, but light teen romance seems out of place in a Holocaust narrative, and overall the simplistic writing style tells rather than shows ("I learned that to care was weak and brutality a virtue in this upside-down world"). Zail's father survived the Holocaust and her desire to honor him is noble, but recent titles such as Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion, 2013) and Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman (HarperCollins, 2014) offer more nuanced, sophisticated treatments. An additional purchase for collections seeking exhaustive Holocaust coverage.—Jill Ratzan, I. L. Peretz Community Jewish School, Somerset, NJ

Kirkus Reviews

2014-08-06
A Jewish girl sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau lives because of the whims of a sadistic camp commandant. Even in the squalor of the 1944 Hungarian ghetto, Hanna Mendel has hope for her promised place at the Budapest Conservatorium of Music, until the Nazis order the ghetto's Jews onto cattle cars. As her journey progresses, Hanna systematically loses everything: her home and piano, cleanliness, preciously hoarded sheet music, her father at the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and her clothes and hair—even her name—as she's processed into the camp. Chance leads Hanna to a terrible hope, for the camp's commandant seeks a pianist. Like all the commandant's personal slaves, her life is only minimally improved. Though she doesn't work at hard labor, she starves just as harshly as any prisoner. The commandant's sulky son, who helps sneak tiny scraps of food into the camp, appeals to Hanna much more than the diseased, wretched Jewish boys. Except for the infelicitously handled romance, Hanna's story is reminiscent of such classics as Aranka Siegal's Upon the Head of the Goat (1981). If anything, Hanna's tale isn't brutal enough—her starvation has few physical implications, for instance, and she's blithely ignorant until war's end of what's burned in the camp ovens or the fate of Dr. Mengele's twins. With fewer living Holocaust survivors each year, it's increasingly important to tell their story, and this is one, however soft-pedaled. (Historical fiction. 11-15)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169873719
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

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