‘Violins of Hope’ Recalls Music of a Troubled Time

“Violins of Hope,” a unique concert series that brings together a collection of musical instruments associated with the Holocaust, is coming to the Southeast in March and April.

The series, which also includes an exhibit of archival materials that put the musical instruments in their historical context, is being presented in Knoxville, Tenn., from March 3 to April 9. It’s under the sponsorship of the Stanford Eisenberg Knoxville Jewish Day School, with support from the city government, University of Tennessee, Tennessee Holocaust Commission and a half-dozen important local organizations.

The instruments and museum exhibit are from the collection of Avshalom Weinstein, a third-generation luthier, or violin maker, in Istanbul and his father, Amnon, who spent a lifetime in Tel Aviv making fine violins. Over the past 17 years, the collection has toured the world to raise awareness of the role that music played in the lives of Jews both before and during the Nazi Holocaust.

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The “Violins of Hope” project was originally created by Amnon Weinstein in Tel Aviv.

Amnon Weinstein, who died at the age of 85 last year, had previously appeared on the CBS program, “Sunday Morning.” He described how he acquired one of the early violins in the collection.

“One day had a guy who came to my shop with a violin that he had owned for years. He wanted me to restore it, and when I opened the violin, there was black powder, perhaps they were ashes, inside. Perhaps they were human ashes, that could come from only one place. Yes. This one was played in the orchestra of Auschwitz.”

Each of the violins comes with a story. One of them is from France, where a Jewish man from Lyon realized that he might never be able to play the instrument again and managed to throw it out of the cattle car to some workmen repairing the rails.

“In the place where I now go,” he said, so the story goes, “I don’t need a violin. Here, take it, so it may live.”

“Violins of Hope” have been featured in concerts around the world.

This is the second visit the collection has made to Knoxville, where it previously made a stop in 2018. A pair of concerts featuring several of the instruments are scheduled with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra on March 5 and April 8. A series of educational programs that are expected to reach over 5,000 participants will be held in area schools, churches, synagogues and community centers in March and April. There’s also a month-long exhibit that’s open to the public.

“Violins of Hope” has traveled the world over the last 17 years to tell the story behind each one of the instruments and how that relates to the larger story of the Nazi Holocaust in the 1930s and during World War II.

Concerts have been held internationally in France, England, Spain, Switzerland, Monte Carlo, and Mexico and in the U.S. in Houston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Charlotte and earlier this month in Jacksonville, Fla. A concert with the Berlin Philharmonic commemorated the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Holocaust Day.

Most of the violins are humble instruments, originally bought by Jews who played them simply and lovingly for pure pleasure. Violins were a favored instrument, particularly in the communities of Eastern Europe. Compared to the other popular instrument, the piano, violins were cheap and highly portable — an important consideration for many who never knew when they might need to make a quick getaway.

They were a featured instrument of klezmer ensembles that played at weddings and other important community gatherings. Later during the dark years of the Holocaust, in the concentration camps where the Nazis often put together orchestras to play for their entertainment, they helped some to survive.

The story of Fania Fenelon, who played in the women’s orchestra in Auschwitz, was a bestseller in 1976 and was made into a film written by Arthur MiIler three years later. Auschwitz also had a 120-member brass band and an 80-piece orchestra, both comprised of male musicians. The Theresienstadt ghetto had an unusually rich musical environment, with multiple daily performances. Many professional musicians were imprisoned there.

To some of those caught up in profound tragedy of the Nazi nightmare, these instruments carried much meaning. One of the docents for the exhibit, Linda Hurwitz, described the importance of these violins, this way.

“There are violins that were instrumental in helping people to save their own lives. But they also brought comfort to people who were otherwise suffering … and they each have a story.”

Locally, Yoel Levi, principal conductor of the Atlanta Symphony for 12 years and an Atlanta resident, has conducted a “Violins of Hope” program in Monterrey, Mexico, with the virtuoso, Shlomo Mintz. However, despite its considerable success in deepening an understanding of the Holocaust nationally and internationally, there are no plans for an Atlanta production.