The author's family was deported from Breslau in 1941, while she - at the age of 16 - and her sister were conscripted for work in a paper factory just outside Breslau. There the two sisters helped in organising the escape of French prisoners of war who worked there (for this they received a French decoration after the war). In September 1942, when they tried themselves to flee to France, they were arrested, Mrs Wallfisch, was sentenced to one year and a half and her sister to 3 1/2 years’ prison by the Breslau People’s Court.

In December 1943 Mrs Wallfisch was transferred from Breslau Prison to Auschwitz-Birkenau. As a cellist, she was incorporated into the camp orchstra, whose members were treated better than the other camp inmates, as the camp commander, Hoess took great pride in its achievements. The orchestra had to play i.e. when Hungarian Jews were sent to the gas chambers in 1944. The director of the orchestra was the violinist Alma Rosé who later died in the camp. Mrs Wallfisch mentions that the Polish Christian women, who were members of the orchestra, were very antisemitic.

In December 1944 Mrs Wallfisch and her sister, who had also meanwhile been transferred to Birkenau, were transported to the overcrowded camp of Belsen. She describes the starvation conditions in the camp and witnissed some cases of cannibalism. The guards were Hungarian SS, who treated the Jews with special brutality. The British liberated the camp on 15 April 1945.