Trompettist in Auschwitz

Trumpeter in Auschwitz is a story of survival. A story of clinging to the smallest spark of beauty in an otherwise completely dark world. A story about one of the darkest pages in our world history. A story that shows how important it is that we keep telling it. That we keep remembering. That we never forget.

Lex van Weren was born in 1920 and grew up in Amsterdam. He taught himself to play the trumpet. When the entire Van Weren family was arrested during World War II and transported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, it was the trumpet that saved his life. As a member of the camp orchestra, he was the only one in the family to survive the terrible time in the camp as prisoner 16848. In 1980, after years of silence, writer Dick Walda persuaded him to tell his story. That shocking and emotional account forms the heart of this intimate production.

Actors Thomas Cammaert and Soy Kroon tell and play the special and moving story of Lex van Weren, the trumpet player in Auschwitz, directed by Eddy Habbema. The book by Dick Walda is adapted into a theatre text by Allard Blom.