Other Issues of Distortion and Embellishment in Fania Fénelon’s Playing for Time

Abstract

In this chapter Eischeid continues her exposé of the many issues of distortion and embellishment contained in Fénelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Topics addressed include rehearsal hours and night work, the controversy over Fénelon’s age and its significance, false repertoire claims, fear of retribution for bad performance, false portrayals of Josef Kramer and Josef Mengele and the sexualization of the SS, embellished or manufactured details about major camp events, the inaccurate portrayal of Oberaufseherin Maria Mandl, and the untrue representations of other Auschwitz prisoners including Zofia Czajkowska, Fanny Birkenwald, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Hélène Scheps, Violette Jacquet Silberstein, and the Ovitz dwarf family.