Auschwitz Survivors recall fond memories of Orchestras, Grand pianos, painting murals, making tea, watching movies, playing soccer, buying cigarettes & beer with their paychecks, theatre productions

This is certainly not something you'll see in the mainstream media or in an American clasroom. A series of video interviews with elderly Jewish Auschwitz concentration camp survivors reveal some not-so-well-known facts about the camp.

One survivor recalls the magnificent orchestra. "One musician was so good," she says, they had "not just a piano, a grand piano!" She recalls how she helped with the soundstage: "the downstairs room was for theater, they wanted to build a stage curtain in that new block..."

Others describe how it was very peaceful at Auschwitz - A woman describes how she would make tea for the whole camp; they watched movies, and were allowed to write postcards and letters to friends.

Another explains how there was a cantina in the camp where they could buy needed items, and tells the interviewer that yes, they were allowed to have money; and he would buy things like cigarettes and beer. The only thing he wasn't impressed with was the 'weak beer'. They got paid with coupons which were redeemable in the cantina. He happily goes on to describe "several organized very well, soccer teams" which "Kept their minds off the problems."

One woman was an artist and was asked to paint a mural on the wall for the children at the daycare center. She painted a Swiss chalet with a meadow, sheep and cows. The mural evolved and she added images of Snow White and the Seven dwarfs; she fondly recalls how all the kids loved it. They later put on a theatre production of Snow White and the seven dwarfs. "How is it that they put on a play?!" the interviewer incredulously asks.
 
"I don't know," the woman replies, "But the SS soldiers came and watched!"
Watch the video here: