>> From the library of
Congress, in Washington D.C.
>> Gail Shirazi: Hi,
I'm Gail Shirazi,
of the Israel Judaica
section here at the Library.
Welcome to today's
program, "Violins of Hope",
co-sponsored by the European
Division, the Hebrew Language Table
at the Library of Congress, in
cooperation with the Czech embassy
and the Rebean Chair at
George Washington University.
Two announcements before we start.
Please shut your cellphones off or
silence them, and the second one is
that we are being webcast.
And the part that will be
scanning the audience is a question
and answer period, so, if you
don't want to be webcast and appear
on the LC website, you can leave
the room, stand in the corner,
but just so you should know.
Speaking of violins, I just
want to mention that the Library
of Congress has musical
instrument collections.
Our first collection was five
violins of Antonio Stradivari.
So, we have five, we
may have more now
but Stradivari's violins
are here at LC.
There's also a collection
given to the Library
by the King of Thailand, in 1960.
To learn more about
these instruments
and other wonderful
collections and treasures at LC,
you can google www.loc.gov.
This program was a truly
cooperative effort.
I would like to thank Grant
Harris and Erica Spencer
of the European division,
Jennifer Gavin [phonetic]
and Donna Herschel [phonetic]
of our Public Affairs office.
Galena Tavorowski [phonetic]
of the Israeli Judaica section,
Mary Fetscow [phonetic] and the
embassy of the Czech Republic
and professor Walter Reich
[phonetic] at GW University
and of course, Amnon and
Avshalom Weinstein are presenters,
and our violinist Hannah
Tarley [phonetic].
It is a true honor to have these
talented artists with us today,
Amnon, a master violin
maker, his son Avshalom,
third generation luthier,
and Hannah [phonetic],
a world renowned violinist who
just arrived today this morning
from New York, and she
has to leave at 2:00
because she has a performance
she's giving in New York tonight.
So, thank you very much
Hannah, for above and beyond.
She started playing
the violin at age two
and gave her first
performance at age four.
She's the founder and artistic
director of "Notes by the bay",
a new children summer music
festival in California,
and if you'd like to know some
more information about her,
there's some sheets in the
back and some up front,
because her accomplishments
are too great to mention.
Through their work with the
violins, these dedicated
and amazing individuals
are giving voices
to millions murdered
in the Holocaust.
We will start with the
presentation by Amnon, then Avshalom
and in between, Hannah
will be playing.
First, we have some opening remarks
by Pavla Valeczicnova
[phonetic], did I do it OK?
Had a Public Diplomacy Department at
the embassy of the Czech Republic,
and then we'll start our
formal program, thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Pavla Valeczinova:
Good afternoon, others.
It is the greatest pleasure and
honor indeed to be here in the name
of our Embassy and, as originally
the Ambassador was supposed to be,
here and he sends his big apologies
because one Congressman only
confirmed last minute meeting
with him, when your
Ambassador's been here
for a week precisely, right?
So, sorry about that, really.
"Violins of hope", for me in
general, the terms of music,
the Holocaust seem to be
actually impossible to unite,
and I love the title because
that's what I feel when I think
about Holocaust and
music in connection.
I feel that we must have brought
hope and it must have been a hope
for survival and a better world.
Being Czech I immediately think
about Czech composers or Czech -
Jewish Czech composers
that were stationed
at Terezin [phonetic] start.
There were about nine
or ten of them.
And as you probably know, the
Terezin was a special case
in the Nazi camp system, because
it was the camp on show --
the ghetto on show so, it was
also a mean of Nazi propaganda.
So, that's why the music
was also played over there.
And there was a large number of
musicians and artists in Terezin so,
the Nazis used them very,
you know, in the Nazi way,
and they even did documentaries
about this artistic part
of the ghetto, of the
example of ghetto.
The Terezin composers Pavel
Haas, Guideon Kline, Hans Krause
and Viktor Oldman, we
had several years ago,
I think 2014 we had a very
nice concert called "Phoenix
from the ashes" and it was the music
by these composers, and it was one
of the strongest evenings we
had at the Embassy until now.
I -- to conclude, seeing
these beautiful instruments,
I'm thinking about one Holocaust
survivor that I met some years ago
in London, Alice Herz-Sommer
[phonetic], she was a pianist,
she was in Terezin and she
died at the age of 110 years.
Three years ago, in London.
She was an example of
positivity, and very funny,
and that's immearly [phonetic] my
thoughts tonight if you permit --
if you let me honor her and
of course I'm looking forward
to hear Amnon and Avshalom's stories
and Hanna's beautiful performance.
Thank you, and thank you Gail.
[ Applause ]
>> Amnon Weinstein: Good
evening, ladies and gentleman.
I'm very honored to be here
at the Library of Congress.
I'm afraid I may sound
too pompose in English,
so I will not tell you
excited I am to be here today.
Let me go into most
solid ground and present
to you our project,
"Violins of hope".
I would like to start
with a personal story.
My history with music
started 100 years ago in 1915;
my father was a little boy in
Stechvlend [phonetic], east Poland.
When he first time heard
the sound of a violin.
Ecclesial troop arrived there to
play for a versi [phonetic] wedding,
and while all the children set under
the table trying to get some sweets,
Moschele [phonetic] my father
was hypnotized by the music.
He approached the violinist
and since then never stopped
to love and to live music.
If you may let us, the
Cleisnard [phonetic] to live
and so there's Moschele, he
followed the wagon and the horses
of the Cleisnard out of town.
Just like the story of
the flautist of Hamelin.
His mother, my grandmother
Esther, looked for him everywhere,
until somebody said that the
boy followed the musicians.
Well, young people ran after the
wagon, caught the little boy,
and for many days everyone gossip
about the punishment the boy got,
also, about the violin he
was given to play with.
And he played it.
He learned to play all by himself
and later started in Vienna.
This is how little
Moschele was introduced
to the Jewish musical
tradition of the haram,
this is how he joined many
prodigal boys and girls,
some who became the
greatest virtuosos of Europe.
The day that my father got
his first radio simple violin,
violin support project
was born symbolically.
As a young boy in Tel Aviv,
in the middle of the '40s,
I remembered many survivors who came
to see my father at his workshop.
He used to hug them and then
hand them a violin and say,
[speaking foreign language].
He would say those words, and they
were the first words in the world
that they will learn in jiddish.
[Speaking foreign language]
"Play a little bit".
Soon, the guests and my father
were sitting and playing a bit,
loving a bit and playing the
violins like they would never stop.
As a little, boy who started taking
violin lessons with a teacher,
I remember asking one
guess, how did he play
without notes and books of music?
"And the birds", he answered,
"Do they sing with notes?"
By the way, a very funny
history ahead of this time,
because all his classmates that
knew to play, and to imitate birds,
and my father had a cat in the
workshop, and every time one
of them came over, they ask him to
imitate a bird, and the danny super.
In the moment, the cat heard the
sound, he was going like crazy
in all the workshop to
look after the bird.
Years later, an experienced
violin maker, I met Daniel Schmidt
of Dresden, East Germany who
came to study with me in Tel Aviv
and became a close friend.
Daniel knew a little
of the Holocaust,
he didn't learn it in school.
Israel is different.
The Holocaust is present everywhere
and all the time with most people;
Daniel was curious
and soon met musicians
who emigrated from Germany in 1936.
This is when Boris
Labrunmun [phonetic]
and Arturo Toscanini established the
Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra.
Uberman [phonetic], addition
Jewish musician, who lost position
in German Orchestra, and those,
had sell him their
lives and their violins.
The truth is that most
Jewish violinist made
on German-made instrument,
which were on Sibert the
very best at that time.
By the way, Uberman was the
Vunderking and as a child of nine,
performed the difficult concerto
of the composer Johannes Brans.
Brans, set in the modules
and rumors are saying
that the old composer
was touched to tears.
In the last century, the violin
was considered almost a Jewish
instrument, popular in weddings and
the most in young boys' education.
So, many boys were forced to take
violin lessons at age of five,
and quite a few grew
to be world famous.
When Isaac Stern was asked why so
many Jews play the violin he said,
"It is an instrument which is the
easiest to pick up and handle".
As you know, many little managed
to run - to pick up the violins,
many were killed and the
instrument confiscated by the Nazis.
In fact, the Nazis confiscated
thousands of violins,
violas and cellos of
Jewish violinists.
Why? Why the few instrument,
when the famously Italian made,
most were very cheap, made purposely
for plays in the kilometers.
It is impossible to return
confiscated musical instruments
to their rightful owner.
They outlay weigh, identified
simple violin and prove
that once upon a time, before that,
it belonged to a Jewish violinist.
But there is no doubt as to the
rightful owner of violins decorated,
is one or more star of the heaven.
They were truly owned by
lasemas [phonetic] to me,
the cheap unsophisticated
violins had no big name
at that [inaudible],
signified lost people.
To me, that makes the
project "Violins of Hope",
to me the lovely decorated
violins have emotional value,
far better than money value.
One day, I got a violin broken
to pieces, practically to beat
and shred, on its plastic bag.
It took me about a year and a
half to glue its broken bone
and to put them together
again, to fit its head
and belly and restore the sound.
It was much care and love that
we brought it back to life,
so it could play and reach out
many people in the concert hall.
Only when I glued the other part I
discovered that this is beautiful.
It is decorated with
Five Star of David,
made by Jacob Tieveman [phonetic],
a Jewish maker who worked in Warsaw.
It was probably made for a glasmer
[phonetic] and played outside
in rain and freezing snow, a
witness to many horrible scenes.
By the way, Jacob Tieveman was a
teacher and mentor of my father.
I must confess that each time
I finish to restore a violin,
I feel nervous, holding
back my breath,
until the minute I have the
first note being played.
Once the sound is heard,
I start breathing again.
It feels like the birth
of a new child.
Well, almost.
After World War II, when the
Holocaust became common knowledge,
and survivors were back to
Israel, there was a general boycott
of German-made goods,
so much so that the name
of Germany was not
mentioned on the radio.
In this atmosphere, Varnemish
[phonetic] refused to play
on German-made instruments.
Many came to my father and said,
"If you don't buy a violin,
I'm going to break it.
I'll never touch it again".
My father, who loved each and every
violin, bought many instruments,
violins, viola, cellos, and
other to save their lives.
Yet, realized that he could
never hear them again.
This is how we developed
a big collection
of German-made instruments
of first rate.
Back to my student, Daniel, he
asked me one day to give a lecture
and the Annual German and Violin
and Bow Makers Association.
He asked me and I refused.
This went on for about
two years, until 1999;
interesting when I presented the
German Association with 200 photos
of violins and many more
anecdotes and stories.
Until then, for the past 20
years, I cannot stop talking
about my collection, now
sharing it with my son Avshalom,
a collection of pan serving violins.
My father used to say that all
the children should learn music
and practice the violin.
People who play the
violin, he believed,
cannot be evil and violent.
Well, he's to be proven wrong, as
many Germans who worship music,
were evolved in so many atrocities.
But he was a naïve
believer, my father.
But, sometimes it is naïve people
who make difference in this world.
Listen to this story.
Ilona Fair was a Hungarian
violin virtue also,
who somehow managed
to stay and survive.
When she arrived in Israel,
she could not adapt to the life
in our country and then, and she
was unable to perform onstage.
Ilona was desperate.
She came to my father in tears.
"You must give violin lesson
to teach the new generation
of Jewish children that in
time will become virtuosos.
You must continue the
tradition of many violinists,
who killed in Europe", he said.
And she listened.
And soon, he had listened
to six-year-old [speaking
foreign language],
and so many other Israeli legends.
We named the project
"Violins of Hope",
violins with history
and personal stories.
Many saved actual lives.
Some violins survived by their
owners' burials, some were hidden
in the attic, one was buried
under the snow, one was strung
out of a kettle train in France,
some came from Poland and Romania,
some from Holland, many from Germany
and Austria, when violin was played
in the main orchestra in Auschwitz.
All of them are restored
as the best we can,
and all 64 of them today play in
concert in Europe and America.
Two years ago, our violins
played an unforgettable concert
with the Berliner Philharmonic,
in remembrance of 70 years
to the liberation of Auschwitz.
We also played concerts in
Charlotte, North Carolina, Cleveland
and lately Sarasota at
Jacksonville, Florida.
Since the premier concert in
Istanbul, Turkey, and the concerts
at the wall of Jerusalem,
the violins do not
quietly in their cases.
After 70 years of silence,
they refuse to keep quiet.
Next year the reiterate Israel
70s in Nashville Tennessee.
In Birmingham, Alabama, they
will also play as socket concert
in Dachau, the first Nazi
concentration camp in Europe.
There are sought by many and soon
we hope, they will be exhibitioned
and played in ten major
American cities,
where educational programs will be a
part of their daily schedule as part
of exhibition internationals.
Last December, the project was
awarded the Stumedal [phonetic]
of Holmes, honor by
the German government.
This was also a piece of hope.
I would like to finish with two
stories that inspired our concerts.
These are the stories of
Alma Hauser and Emily Zend.
Alma Hausen [phonetic] was born
to musical royalty in Vienna.
Her father was a famous violinist
and composer Gustav
Mahler was her uncle.
Alma was beautiful
and talented violinist
who conducted a little
orchestra of young women
that traveled all over Europe.
When time changed, she
became the conductor
of the Women Orchestra in Auschwitz.
As such, she managed to save the
lives of many women prisoners,
but failed to save herself.
In her memory, I would like to read
to you a short paragraph
of her biography.
It took place while she was
visiting her camps in hospitals,
block ten Wilkenow [phonetic].
After dark, a woman prisoner
named Magda handed a violin
to Alma Hauser a new
inmate in Block 10.
40 years later, Magda remembered
when all was quiet,
Alma began to play.
Without words, she transported
the prisoner of the block 10
to the world outside Auschwitz,
far from hatred and inhumanity.
Her music blossomed
into memories of family,
home, holiday and happy time.
The docks on the back
[inaudible]; the operating room,
the excess doctors,
the muffled sounds
of the execution yard disappeared,
beauty have long forgotten dreams
in block 10 until that night.
Nobody there who had dreamed of such
beauty, as her playing that moment.
By the way, the only recording left
of Alma Hauser is the Bach double
concerto which she played together
with her father, Arnold Hauser.
Now, Elie Wiesel [phonetic].
A few months ago, Elie Wiesel
a writer, political activist
and novel laurate, and most of all
an empathic, warm hearted person
and survivor, passed away.
As a child in Sieget, Romania, he
took violin lessons and he used
to go to the teacher
with his violin case
and a bottle of shutka,
local vodkda.
Fortunately for the little
Elie, his lessons lasted only
if there was vodka
left, not too long.
Not so many years later,
Visel Meulik [phonetic],
a concert violinist, they were
on the Desmauch [phonetic],
rented for the freezing night in
a small barn with many inmates.
Then miracle happened, Meulik
[phonetic] took out his violin
and played the violin
Beethoven Concerto.
This was Meulik's finale, as the
next morning he was found dead.
Visel told his sad story in
his famous book the night
that he got the Nobel Prize.
I would like to conclude with a
Hebrew prayer [Speaking Hebrew].
[ Applause ]
Now is the turn of my son,
and he will take the podium.
>> Avshalom Weinstein:
Good afternoon
and thank you for coming today.
I'm Avshalom Weinstein, Amnon's
son, third generation violin maker
in Israel, and I'll present
you some of the instruments
that you see here today,
and I'll tell you some
of the stories of them.
We will start with this instrument.
As I'm sure many of you know,
some of the most famous violinist
in the world during the 20th
century were Jewish, Isaac Stern,
and many, many, many others.
But we only now about three or maybe
four Jewish violin makers during
this time.
This violin for example was
made by Jacob Zimmerman,
the mentor of my grandfather.
We know from stories when we
spoke to Edel Handel [phonetic],
and Michele Schwangve [phonetic],
we used to be the concert Maestros
of the Berlin philharmonic for many,
many, many years, on the carry on
and recorded some the best master
pieces, which until today concern
to be some of the best
recording ever.
They were both his clients.
Michel Schwangve who has come from a
very poor family, he told my father
that when he was young he
would get his instruments
and repairs by Zimmerman for free.
Edel Handel remembered him as
a very old man during the 30s,
drinking milk all the time probably
due to an illness or something.
We have no idea what happened
to him during the Holocaust,
we assumed he passed away; he
was already probably over his 70s
when the war started, but
we have a few instruments
of his which survived.
One of them we have here with us,
this is a very unique instrument.
I don't know if most
of you could see it
but you can see it afterwards, it
has a Five Star of David carved
and layered on the back, and the
label inside is written in Yiddish,
and it reads, "I made this violin
for my loyal friend Mr.
Schuman Kongle [phonetic],
Varsow 1924, Jacob Zimmerman."
When my father asked
Michel Schwangve [phonetic]
if he heard the name Schuman
Kongle he said yes, he said,
"We were so poor, we didn't feel
comfortable bringing the violin
teacher home", and his
violin lessons used to be
in Schuman Kongle's
[phonetic] house.
Schuman Kongle was a wealth
industrialist in Varsow
and when the war started he
took his violin and he ran away.
He managed to arrive to Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, where he fell ill
and passed away, most
probably from typhus.
He gave his violin to his
closest friend, and after the war
in around 1946, '47, this run came
to the Congo trammeling Jerusalem,
he knocked on the door and asked,
"Did you know Mr. Schuman Kongle?"
He said, "Yes we do, we haven't
heard from him for many years,
he's our uncle", and
he gave him the violin.
We also have a photo of Schuman
playing on this violin in his house
in Warsaw, and these are
basically the only things
which are left for Mr. Kongle.
We got this violin --
>> The photo or Mr.
Kongle is at his --
>> You can see it later, there
is a booklet here, you'll be able
to see the photo, we have it large
and we got it from the family.
And as I mentioned Jacob Zimerman
[phonetic]was not the only one,
we know of another violin
makers -- Jewish violin makers,
his name was Jacob Hackert, we
have one of his violins here,
unfortunately we couldn't bring
all the instruments today.
Jacob Hackert [phonetic]was born in
the Netherlands, he went to Milkou,
France to the Violin
Making School there.
Later on, he led some of his
apprenticeship around Europe
and Germany, coming
back to Amsterdam
where he opened his workshop.
He had later on a very
successful string factory,
he was making strings
and he made the booklet
of all the reviews he got from
the leading musicians of the time.
Later on his factory was
converted to make medical supplies,
it was the same tools used to make
violin strings, instrument strings
and medical supply, and when the
war started his family managed
to run away, but Jacob Hackert
[phonetic]was caught by the Nazis,
later on deported to
Auschwitz and he was killed
on the 22nd of May, 1944.
We have some of his
instruments who survived,
we have the first violin he ever
made, in Milkou, still in 1906,
there is a cello of his, we do
know of some other instruments.
We have some photo of his in his
workshop and there is a very,
very beautiful miniature violin
about this big, which he made.
The made the violin, the bow which
you can actually use, and the case,
and this is a very, very unique
and very beautiful instrument
and I can show you the level
of scale of Mr. Hackert.
Now, we have another violin
maker, his name is Einstein,
he worked in Germany, in Istanbul as
well and later on moved to New York,
but these are the only three makers
that we know, and unlike many
of the Jewish violinist, they
are considered to be very small
and not many people know about them.
>> Hannah Tarley: So, I
just wanted to say first
of all how -- is it this one?
Or is it -- No, this one, how happy
I am to be here and it's just,
it's amazing being a
part of this project,
it's been an incredible experience.
And every time I hear these stories,
and then when I have to go up
and play, I kind of have to compose
myself because, it takes a second
to sort of, take all of this
in and to hear these stories,
and I got goosebumps
and as I go, "OK,
I actually have to play this now".
When we talk about playing violins
and very often, when you think
about violin or music in general,
it's about presenting your voice,
it's about singing and it's
about whatever unique --
whatever is unique about you
and about your instrument.
That is what you're
putting together,
and with these violins I feel
like that is especially true,
when I play them, when
they're talked about,
it's really very special
to talk about the voices
that are being presented here.
And the fourth pieces, the
fourth extra step that I'm going
to be playing for you
today, I feel really show
that in sort of, the best way.
So, the first piece that
I'm going to play is
by Rachmainov [phonetic]
and it's the Vocalise.
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
>> From what we know, most of the
German violin makers and bow makers,
were not in the Nazi party.
Many of them, of course
had Jewish lines,
some of them even helped
Jewish people either
by buying the instruments
from them, --
this way providing them some
money so they can escape,
or even hiding them at home; but,
as you can see here on this violin,
somewhere Nazi sympathizer.
This violin, which was
actually bought a few years ago
by a violin maker around here,
from Washington DC, he bought it
and his initial thought was to take
the violin, do some reparation,
probably sell it and when he
opened the violin, he saw this,
"Hail Hitler, 1936" with this very
strong and aggressive swastika.
His first feeling was to
take the violin and burn it,
and then he did what most
of us would do today,
opened up his computer,
went to Google, and somehow,
he managed to find us, he gave
a call to my father and ask him
if he would like to have this
violin in our collection.
He said immediately yes, and he
was so kind and sent it over to us,
and this is one of the various
small amounts of instruments
which will never be repaired
and will stay as it is,
to show what people could have done.
When we take a closer
look on the violin,
there was no reason to repair it.
When the guy opened it, in 1936
he didn't do any reparation,
there are no cracks; there are
no pieces which were replaced.
The only reason he
opened this violin was
to write this horrible thing,
and then later he closed it,
tried to give it back to the
owner or sold it, we have no idea.
We couldn't locate the name of
the guy, his initials are A.D,
but we couldn't find his name in
any of the dictionaries and any
of our books, we don't know what
his name is, we know it's coming
from Germany, but that's it.
Many of the German makers who
were some of the leading makers
of the time, after the
war people didn't want
to play on their instruments.
Many of the Jewish players either
sold or destroyed their instruments,
and only today, after so many
years they start getting again the
recognition that they used
to have, those German makers,
have been really some of the
leading makers of the time
and people today are still
looking for these instruments
and when Daniel Schmidt, when he
came into our workshop in Israel
and he saw the collection and he
saw these beautiful German-made
instruments, he was quite
shocked because this instruments,
you could not find in
Germany in this time.
It was very rare to see them and
many of them they were in a way lost
in Germany, and only today people
start understanding the quality
and how good makers most
of these people were.
>> This next violin has
a very unique story.
This violin was played in the
Men Orchestra in Auschwitz.
Auschwitz as you know was
one of the biggest camps,
it had about eight orchestras,
there were men orchestra,
there was the women orchestra,
which was led by Alma Hauset.
Alma managed to save all the players
of the orchestra, they all survived,
but unfortunately a few
months before the war ended,
she passed away, either
from poisoning
or from typhus, nobody knows.
There are so many stories
about her orchestra but one
of the most interesting one is,
there was an inspection of mangle
in the hospital, and as you
know most of the people who went
to the hospital was kind of a one
way trip, and many of them were sent
to death, and he was going around
and he saw this very sick lady
and he asked, "Why is she still
here, why is she still alive?",
and the people said, "Well, she's
part of the Women Orchestra",
he said just "OK", and he
went to the next patient.
She was -- she had this kind of
halo, of someone who was respected,
and from what we know today
she was the only person
that the Germans called in her
name, they would call her --
they would address to her as "Frau
Hauset [phonetic], Mrs. Hauset",
the only person we know was
actually called by name.
Auschwitz had the men orchestra
who played very close to the
"Arbeit Macht [phonetic] Frei"
sign, they would play every day
in the morning when the
Englands would go out to work,
and in the evening when
they would come back.
They would pile the dead just
in front of the orchestra.
Many people who played in this
camp couldn't play afterwards;
they couldn't have the
power to play an instrument
after seeing everything they
used to see while playing.
There were people and there are
stories about people playing
on the way to the gas chambers,
they would see their families sent
to the gas chambers, they would lay
down their instruments
and join their families.
The Nazis used music
also as a deception tour.
When the trains would arrive
to the kangs [phonetic] there
would be a small orchestra playing,
and we heard some testimonies
of survivors saying
that when they were going out from
the train, sometimes after days
and days stuffed in a cattle
wagon with no food and no water,
and no sanitary, and no break
and with many deads inside,
they would go out and
they would hear music.
And they would actually
think to themselves, "Well,
if there is music here,
how bad can it be?"
And of course, they learned very,
very fast how bad it could be.
And this violin, which we got two
years ago, we were told that the guy
who brought it - the father of
the person who brought it to us,
he was a soldier in
the Jewish brigade,
and after the war he was going
around and trying to help survivors
to get papers and start
their lives again.
He met a survivor and the guy
told him he said, "Listen,
I have nothing on,
my family's killed,
I have nothing left,
only this violin.
Would you please buy it from me?"
He bought it for $50, which was
more than ten times the price
of an instrument of this kind,
and he hoped that his son,
who had just born, will
hopefully one day play the violin.
Unfortunately, he never did and
three years ago when he heard
about our project,
he brought it to us
and since then this violin was
played in all of our concerts,
sometimes by the soloist,
sometimes by the concert maestro.
The concert maestro of Cleveland
Symphony played it and it was played
in the concert of Berlin by
the soloist guy Bernstein,
and lately by the soloist
Alexei Kenyu [phonetic],
you know her concert in
Jacksonville, Florida,
and today you'll hear it now.
>> So, the next piece that I'm going
to play is a movement,
from a partite by Bach.
And when you're learning
pieces, you know,
when you're learning new
material it's mostly always
about what did the composer want?
What was the composer
thinking about?
What was going on in his life?
And that's -- as students and as
teachers, that's always something
that we're thinking about the
most, what came from the original,
where is this music coming from?
But I feel like today, with this
room and these violins we have
to change that a little bit, and
today it's not about the composers,
it's about the instruments, and
it's about how the instrument wants
to play a certain piece, and I
of course will help the
instrument, show it's voice.
But in a way, I think that
makes it very special,
because you communicate
the instrument
on a whole different level, so,
this would be a movement from Bach.
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
>> This next violin has
a very interesting story.
Fibal Veilenger [phonetic],
who was a Romanian Jew,
and when the war started
he was deported with tens
of thousands other Jewish people
to Ameria cult [phonetic],
on Istria in Romania.
They were sent there
by the government,
knowing that they won't
have enough means
to survive, as food and supplies.
And many tenths of
thousands of them passed away.
When Fiber arrived with his family
and his one-and-a-half-year-old
daughter, Helen, she was so weak
that she couldn't even cry anymore.
He arrived to the place and he me
a judge who knew him from before.
The judge knew that he was a
violinist and he told him, "Listen,
I have this violin, this very
precious old Italian instrument,
made by Amati.
Would you please take it,
maybe if you have some work,
of you can play a little
bit you'll earn something,
maybe you can share it
with me and my sister".
Fibal [phonetic] of course was
very grateful, he took the violin
and after his first work, where
he would get the leftovers
of the party, he went
back to the judge's house,
but he said that it was too late.
A few days before that,
the judge and his sister
who couldn't bare it anymore,
hang themselves and died.
Fibal kept the violin
for a long time,
playing around for the
villagers in small events,
and his payout would be some
leftover food, some firewood
and this way he managed to keep
his family of 16 people, alive.
A while later the police heard
that he had this precious violin,
and they came over
and gave him a choice,
"Either you give us the violin
or we take away your family."
He didn't hesitate and gave them
the Amati violin, and days later
when one of the villagers found area
around they came to him and said,
"Would you please come and play in
my daughter's wedding?", he said,
"I would love to do that
but I have no instrument".
The guy said, "Well,
that's not a big problem,
come with me, we will find you one".
They went to the villages around
and they found his violin.
Fibal took it, he insisted on
paying later on the guy back,
he played of course in his
daughter's wedding and in many,
many other places, and this way
he managed to gather enough food
and supply, and him and his 16
family members survived the war.
When they came back to Israel
- after they arrived to Israel
after the war, fiber would
take his violin every day out,
play on it until his little daughter
Helen would survive all the stories
and all the things that he was going
through with this instrument,
and before that.
Years later, when Fibal
was 90 years old,
his daughter asked him what he
would like to have for his birthday,
he said, "I would like
to play my friend again".
He wouldn't call the
violin "my violin",
he would call it "my friend".
Helen came to my father
and we saw the instrument,
it was in a very poor condition,
a very simple instrument.
We offered her maybe to take another
violin for her father to play on,
and when he heard the offer he
said, "You don't understand,
this is not just a
violin, he's my friend.
I want to play on this violin".
She came back to us, she told us
the story, when he purred the violin
and he got it back when
he was 90 years old,
smiling like a little child.
He would take it out every
day, play on it, talk to it,
he couldn't really play much,
he was very old, very sick,
but he would sit down and talk to
the violin and tell it stories.
And a few years ago, after
unfortunately passed away,
we got the violin from
Helen and we have it
in out collection since then.
>> So, this next piece will be by
one of my favorite composers, Vojak,
and this is actually one of his
-- he has three pieces for violin,
it's like three -- it's
a ballad, a nocturnal --
this part I'm going to
play part of the ballad.
And of course, this is, again, this
is singing with the instrument,
this is bringing out the
voice of the instrument
and really connecting my voice
with the instrument's voice.
And I really love the story
about this man and the violin
that was his friend, I think it's
such a touching story and it kind
of gets me every time I hear it.
So, this is Vojak and
hopefully the violin and I,
we're going to be friends right now.
[ Tuning the violin ]
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
>> For the last story of
today, we have this violin.
As you can see there's a
very big Star of David,
and this violin was done in
Schrenbach [phonetic] a place
which was - I think it was a part
of the Czech Republic during
some time before the war, yes.
And in this area they
made many instruments,
some of them were decorated,
some with Star of David,
some with crosses, some
with other ornaments,
they used to sell them
around Europe.
Many were played by gypsies -- not
the ones with the star of David
but others, and they would play
them, and then someone would come
and they would say, "Oh it's such a
beautiful violin, he would tell them
like a story, and he would
ask, "Can I buy the violin?"
and he's like "No, it's
my great-grandfather is
and blablabla blablabla",
take a really high price,
sell the violin two minutes
later till his son would came,
"OK bring me the next one",
and they would go on like that.
Now, this violin it's dedicated
to the Bielski [phonetic] family.
I'm coming from both sides of
the holocaust, my father's side,
my grandmother and my grandfather
both with 11 brothers and sisters,
and then -- and only one
uncle survived the war.
The rest of my family from my
father's side, were all killed.
My grandmother and my
grandfather, from my mother's side,
from the complete opposite story.
My grandfather Arsol Bielsky, who
was one of the Bielsky brothers,
I don't know if -- you might
have seen the movie "Defiance",
it brings kind of a
taste of the story,
unfortunately not exactly
how it was, and him
and his two brothers
saved over 1200 people.
They saved them in the
forest in Byelorussia,
living in very harsh
conditions, surrounded by Germans
and many other people who
were all the time trying
to have them arrested and killed.
They would find the Germans but they
would also save many, many people.
My grandfather after the war
- after they were liberated,
he joined Russian army and
later was killed in Germany,
but his brothers emigrated to Israel
and later on moved to the States,
and one of their recent comers to
Washington DC, that I'm sure some
of you all know, Gerard
Bushnell, both his grandmother
and grandfather were saved
by the Bielsky partisans.
When I grew up and I would go to my
grandmother in Haipha [phonetic],
the only - the bedtime stories would
be the stories of the partisans.
I heard them since I was a little
child and, unlike my mother's side
of the family, my father's side --
my grandmother and my grandfather
never spoke a single word
about their family,
about what was going on.
They arrived [inaudible], in
1938, before the war and none
of the uncles or our aunts, none
of them survived except for one.
So, this is the last violin for
today, I hope you enjoyed it,
we'll have time for questions
if anyone has and we hope now
that we are trying to have
this big project to go
to even bigger exhibitions, but
mainly also in educational program.
Travelling in the US and the
world and in January, February.
We've been to Jacksonville
and to Sarasota;
we had more than 12,000
o 13,000 students,
coming to presentations very
similar to what we have today.
They would hear the
stories, listen to the music
because in a way it's a very unique
project, you can hear a story,
you can hear the violins,
they would come afterwards
and they would see the violin
up in person, ask questions and,
it's something we cannot really
understand the holocaust.
Nobody has ever seen 6
million people together.
But when you're talking
about individual stories,
individual people, coming from
one place, going to another place,
managing to survive somehow,
to live yet another day,
it gives you in a way a
different perspective of a time
that maybe one day we'll
be able to understand
and hopefully we would never
have to experience again.
>> So, the last piece that I will be
playing today will be two movements,
two dances basically, from Vartax
[phonetic] Romanian dancers
or folk dancers.
And I just thought that in this
violin -- this is a custom violin,
yes this is the custom violin
I just thought to play it
with folk dances would be
an appropriate kind of duet.
[ Music ]
[ Applause ]
>> Now we have time
for a few questions.
>> Yes.
>> And repeat the question.
>> I want to thank you for --
this has totally worked for me,
what you're doing and I wanted to --
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you very much
>> I have a comment and a question,
my first comment was
I have a friend,
who's a very accomplished
violin teacher
and he has a great story
that I wanted to share.
His teacher [inaudible] and
he was hiding in an attic,
and the Russians found
him, they broke his violin
and then they would kill him.
And then he started
played Tchaikovsky.
And -- I'm sorry I'm crying,
but the violin saved his life.
I wanted to tell you that story.
My question is, is there any hope
for the stolen goods, you know,
tracing back stolen goods that,
whoever get that Amanti
[phonetic] that you talked about?
>> Well, the question was about
trying to recover instruments, so,
the main problem is that when
the Nazis confiscated musical
instruments and violins in
particular, the data would go,
"violin, made out of wood,
color, whatever" and that's it.
Unlike a painting that you say, the
woman standing with the flower vase,
with the window behind it,
it's almost impossible to trace
because there were
so many instruments
which were made, very, very similar.
Most of them like we said before,
they are not from the important
makers, and unfortunately,
I don't think we can locate then.
There was a woman who was trying
to locate a few instruments.
I don't know, as far as I know,
she couldn't manage to find them.
And it's very, very hard
to try to trace them
because there is not
enough data basically.
>> How would you compare the
wood, the selection of wood,
between these various instruments --
>> Well, the wood, which we use
for violins, the top is always made
out of spruce, the
ribs, back and scrawl,
usually the instruments you see here
and most of the instruments are made
out of maple -- flamed maple.
Sometimes out of birch
wood and some very few
out of different other woods,
which are grown up in Italy,
but most of the instruments -- I
would say even more than 90 percent,
the ribs, back and
scrawl are made of maple.
>> First of all, thank you for
taking the trouble to come,
I'd like to talk tackalist
because the violins would teach,
when Isaac Vermont -- when
Isaac Roban was alive --
>> Isaac Stern
[ Crosstalk ]
>> There are teachers -- the great
violinists who teach they also,
as you know from Dick Pavlavoni and
other people, are very generous.
You need to ask them to
adopt this project --
>> Well, let me -- let me tell you
one thing, Isaac Pearlman was born
in a street behind our workshop.
His first violin that he ever
got was from my grandfather,
they made now a documentary
about him
and he's playing the
Auschwitz violin,
he played the "Schindler's
List" on that for the movie.
He does know the project;
hopefully he will take part of it.
What do you say?
>> They have called all of the
great collectors of this country.
>> Yes, I know.
>> And worked with them on projects.
But this one is very special,
because I don't know a school
in the country that would
not want to participate.
And as the founding Vice Chairman
at the holocaust division we know
what this and what it's about.
And as you know from what you have
said already, the level of pedagogy
of kids absorbing when they see the
real thing, is a million percent.
>> Yes, because they passed
it up and they tweet it
and get it communicated
very, very well and fast.
>> My major point is that these
violins are what I would call a
precious legacy of those who
owned it and didn't survive.
Will live on and teaching
that no one can do otherwise.
>> This is our main hope --
>> Your labor is what you have
done already, and it seems to me
that those who have
the possibilities
to really help you
will do it and fast.
>> Well, I hope so.
[ Applause ]
>> Yes?
>> I want to thank you
for this presentation.
It has meant so much to me
because, this summer I will be going
to visit Auschwitz for
the first time in my life,
as well as other concentration camps
on a special tour I'll be taking.
I will be very happy to take
your recommendation with me
and I will share it with the people
that I'll be touring with because --
I don't know any of them yet
but I'm sure they will
be very interested to --
>> We'll talk about it, afterwards
I'll give you a card gladly,
thank you.
>> Any more questions?
Yes.
>> I know it's hard to generalize
but the majority of the instruments,
what type of shape were they in
before restoration and was most
of varnish remain intact?
>> Well, the question was,
what was the condition
of the instruments when we got it.
Well, some instruments they
were in very poor condition,
you could see that some of
them were played outside,
where the varnish of
the top was gone.
Basically, the only thing which
would stay would be the color.
Some of them were broken to pieces,
we have one which is so badly done
and so poorly paired that we left
it as it is so people can see
that they had to so everything
they could just in order to be able
to play another day and
hopefully survive another day,
even if it meant to repair
the instruments in a way
that they would never
think of doing before,
but they actually had
no other choice.
>> Any other question?
Yes.
>> You mentioned your grandfather
was a Bielsky [phonetic],
could you tell me the names of
the other two brothers involved
as the partisans and also, are any
Bielsky brothers still alive today?
>> Unfortunately, Tobia
Bielsky was chosen
as the leader, he was the elder.
And my grandfather was the head of
the fighting unit, Asoil Bielsky,
there was another brother
Zeus who was, he was the head
of the intelligence,
Zeuszia [phonetic].
They had another little brother who
was 13 years old, Pavel Bielsky;
he's the only one who's still alive.
>> You mentioned that
performing in Nashville
and I'm wondering what the next
events your organization has
in United States.
>> We are going to have a
very big project in Nashville,
next year starting on the
22nd of march until the 20th
of May, if I'm not mistaken.
It's going to include
a few concerts.
During this time, we're going to
have two concerts in Birmingham,
Alabama, on the 12th and
on the 14th of April.
In the States, right now we
have many people who are asking
for projects, we have
nothing finalized yet.
We are hoping to start our big
project sometime around the fall
of 2018 if we can manage to gather
all the money and all the funds,
and then slowly, slowly
start touring on around.
We have many offers to do in
San Francisco, from Los Angeles,
from Chicago, from Washington
area, from New York, Phoenix
and probably another ten places
but I'm sorry I don't
remember them all right now.
>> Thank you.
>> I want to add one Bielsky,
who were with the partisans
and had doctors' assistance --
>> One of my cousins, Taibe
[phonetic], one of the grandkids
from -- one of the daughters
of the Bielsky brothers
is here with us today.
Two, two of them.
Well, I have a big family.
[ Applause ]
>> And my mother, yes,
Assaila [phonetic].
[ Applause ]
>> Any more questions.
>> I'd like to thank the musician,
I don't remember her name.
>> Hannah Tarley [phonetic].
>> If you could tell a
little bit about her,
what would you do now, were you --
>> And how you booked up?
[ Applause ]
>> It is a pleasure.
It's a real pleasure to
come here today, I always;
I really love participating in
this project, like I said before.
We actually met quite recently,
I was part of the series opera
"Violins of hope",
because I'm actually part
of the Poland music program, and
you mentioned as a problem for --
and that's actually how we
got connected, they called me
and asked me if I wanted to
[inaudible] and they were like
"there's this project with these
violins from the holocaust,
would you be in-" and I was like,
"Where do I go, when is happening?"
I'm from California originally,
I'm first generation American born,
my family is also from Russia,
Belorussia, Poland from this area
and also the same sort of stories of
mom's side of the family were able
to get out like minutes
before the Germans came,
dad's side of the family where
like -- it's sort of a similar --
everybody I guess has
this mix in the families.
At the moment, I live in New York
and I'm doing a master's degree
at Julliard school, so that why I
came from New York this morning.
[ Applause ]
>> I've got one question for Amnon.
How did you convince -- let
me say it into the microphone.
How did you convince Avshalom
to also become a violin maker?
I would love my son to have
gone to my husband's business
and it didn't work,
how did you do it?
>> First of all you should
ask how I am a violin maker.
So, that's natural.
I followed my father and
he's following his father,
that's it, very simple.
I wanted to add to the concert,
one month from now we are doing
a project in Bucharest, Romania,
and February 18th we're going to do
something very special in Dachau,
in the concentration camp.
So, that's also on the
program that we have now.
>> OK, no questions?
[ Applause ]
>> Than you very much, we've had
an amazing program thank you Amnon,
Avshalom and Hannah for
giving us your time,
your challenge and your love.
Thank you.
>> This has been a presentation
of the library of congress.
Visit us at loc.com.