Playing for Time is a 1980 television film based on the memoir of the same name by Fania Fénelon, a Jewish singer-pianist who was a prisoner in the women's orchestra at Auschwitz concentration camp. The film depicts Fénelon's experiences as a Jewish performer in the orchestra at Auschwitz and her eventual evacuation to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
The film shows how a group of Jewish female prisoners, including Fénelon, were forced by their German captors to form an orchestra, playing classical music as a form of psychological torture for other prisoners who were being led to their deaths in the gas chambers. It then follows the group's later capture, transport to Auschwitz, the torture and hardships they suffered, and the eventual liberation of the camp by the Allied forces.
Playing for Time was directed by Daniel Mann and starred Vanessa Redgrave as Fénelon. The screenplay was written by Arthur Miller, who himself was a Jewish émigré and Holocaust survivor. The film was controversial upon release, with some critics accusing it of humanizing the Nazis and portraying them as cultured individuals. Others praised it for its examination of the role of the arts in the Holocaust. Despite the controversy, Playing for Time remains a significant work in Holocaust cinema and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.