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Siegfried Lederer's escape from Auschwitz

Siegfried Lederer's escape from Auschwitz.
Siegfried Lederer escaped from Auschwitz on the night of 5 April 1944, wearing an SS uniform provided by Viktor Pestek, a guard at the concentration camp (gate pictured). Pestek opposed the Holocaust because of his Catholic faith and infatuation with Renée Neumann, a Jewish prisoner. Lederer, a former Czechoslovak Army officer and a Jewish member of the Czech resistance, tried unsuccessfully to warn the Jews at Theresienstadt Ghetto about the mass murders at Auschwitz. After he and Pestek returned to Auschwitz in an attempt to rescue Neumann and her mother, Pestek was arrested and later executed. Lederer returned to occupied Czechoslovakia, where he rejoined the resistance movement and attempted to smuggle a report on Auschwitz to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland. After the war he remained in Czechoslovakia. The story of the escape was retold by Lederer, historian Erich Kulka, and other writers.

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Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4

Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4.
Christ lag in Todes Banden (Christ lay in death's bonds), BWV 4, is a chorale cantata for Easter by Johann Sebastian Bach, one of his earliest church cantatas. It is agreed to be an early work, partly for stylistic reasons and partly because there is evidence that it was probably written for a performance in 1707. Text and music are based on Luther's hymn of the same name, derived from medieval models. In each of seven vocal movements, Bach used the unchanged words of a stanza of the chorale and its tune as a cantus firmus. Although all movements are in E minor, Bach intensified the meaning of the text through a variety of musical forms and techniques. He performed the cantata again as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, beginning in 1724 for his first Easter there. Only this second version survived, scored for four vocal parts (soprano part pictured) and a Baroque instrumental ensemble with strings and a choir of cornetto and three trombones. John Eliot Gardiner described the cantata as Bach's "first-known attempt at painting narrative in music" and "a bold, innovative piece of musical drama".

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Scarlet myzomela

Scarlet myzomela.
The scarlet myzomela (Myzomela sanguinolenta) is a small bird of the honeyeater family Meliphagidae native to Australia. It was described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801. At 9 to 11 centimetres (3.5 to 4.3 in) long, it is the smallest honeyeater in Australia. It has a short tail and relatively long down-curved bill. The male (example pictured) is a striking bright red with black wings, while the female is entirely brown. It is more vocal than most honeyeaters; its varied calls include a bell-like tinkling. Found along most of the eastern coastline, the scarlet myzomela is migratory in the southern parts of its range. Its natural habitat is forest, where it forages mainly in the upper tree canopy for insects as well as nectar. Up to three broods may be raised over the course of a breeding season. The female lays two or rarely three flecked white eggs in a cup-shaped nest 5 centimetres (2 in) across, high in a tree. The species is not threatened.

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