Quatour pour la fin du temps
The quartet was given its first performance in Görlitz, Germany (now called  Zgorzelec in Poland) on 15 January 1941.   The audience consisted of about four hundred  prisoners of war.  There were German prison officers sitting in front.  The music must have seemed strange to the audience, but they all listened politely.  Shortly after this Messiaen was released from prison and went back to France.