Amnon Weinstein's basement serves as his shop. It is located in Tel Aviv's Shaul Hamelech boulevard. The shop is redolent with paint, wood and paste. Amnon is busy applying his brushes to parts of historic violins. While doing so, and without looking up, Amnon, now 75 years old, begins to relate the stories of his pending trip to Berlin and of how the “Violins of Hope” came into being.
The suitcases that will accompany him have already been packed. Their contents are precious: 17 string instruments. Each of them once belonged to a Jew suffering persecution, all have been painstakingly restored by Weinstein. Many of these efforts were time-consuming. Weinstein's wife and son will make the trip with him. The trip's destination is Berlin. On January 27, the day on which the victims of the Shoah are commemorated, the violins will be played by prominent musicians in the Berlin Philharmonic.
Weinstein is looking forward to the concert. This joy is, however, marred by a worry. He is afraid of being overwhelmed by the emotions arising whenever he visits the venue. “Berlin is not an easy place for me,” says Weinstein curtly. He has a hard time accepting the fact that so many Israelis have chosen to live in the city, which is Germany's capital.
Unusual collection
Weinsteins' parents emigrated in 1938 from Vilnius to Palestine. “If they hadn't done such, I wouldn't be around,” states Amnon. Moshe Weinstein, his father, taught him the basics of violin making. After that, Amnon went to Cremona, the home of Italy's masters of the trade. Weinstein tells the story of how his father responded to learning that the Nazis had killed his entire family in the Holocaust: by having a heart attack.
In the post-1945 era, no musician in Israel was prepared to perform using an instrument made in Germany, although these had been highly prevalent until the Second World War. Many of the instruments brought to Israel by musicians that had survived the Shoah ended up with Weinstein's father. Most of these instruments were the run of the mill violins that were purchased by Jews on a regular basis in the pre-Nazi error. Some of them have Stars of David engraved in them, indicating that Klezmer music had been played on them. Weinstein's father, as befitting a conscientious violin maker, was not prepared to see the violins get demolished. He acquired them for nominal amounts. This was the start of an unusual collection, which went on to become the inheritance of Moshe's son Amnon.
It took many years for the next step towards the Violins of Hope to be made. It was in 2006 that Amnon's intern, who was from Dresden, convinced him to give a talk in that city about the history of these instruments. Weinstein started researching them. This research revealed that these instruments had saved many lives. One of them was of Heinrich Haftel. This violinist was from Lvov. His violin will be seen in the exhibition of the instruments, which is to be staged in the foyer of the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. Haftel studied the violin with Jenö Hubay in Budapest and with Carl Flesch in Berlin. Haftel then became a master-class student of Bronislaw Huberman. It was the latter who hired Haftel to be a member of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. This was founded by Huberman, and was the forerunner of today's Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Had he not done so, nearly 1000 persons – musicians and their families that had been living in Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary – would have most probably been killed by the Nazis. Their survival was due to Huberman's timely providing them with a way of emigrating from these countries.
Not everybody was so lucky. Weinstein's collection includes the instrument of Motele. He was a boy who survived in 1944 a massacre committed by the Germans. Motele went on to become part of a group of Jewish partisans. By placing explosives in his violin case, Motele smuggled them into a German officers' club. The resultant attack was successful. Motele was, however, apprehended and shot. The commandant of the partisans brought the instrument with him to Israel. A number of the other violins now in Weinstein's possession were played in concentration camps.
Weinstein's lecture in 2006 in Dresden gave rise to the idea of staging concerts featuring the Violins of Hope. These were then held in Istanbul, Paris, Monaco, Rome, London, Cleveland (Ohio), and, on November 9, 2014, in Worms. The city in western Germany is home to a venerable synagogue.
A composition written for the concert in Berlin
The concert in the Berlin Philharmonic on January 27 is also being staged in remembrance of Alma Rosé. This violinist was a cousin of Gustav Mahler. Her womens' orchestra was convened in Auschwitz. It saved the lives of a number of its members – thanks to the Nazis' desire to have classic music. This music was played in the immediate vicinity of the gas chambers and the crematoria. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, attended the concerts. He later wrote an essay on how the sounds of Beethoven affected him in his time of captivity in the concentration camp. This essay will also be read at the concert.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's Foreign Minister, will kick off the evening by saying a few words. The concert will feature works by Mahler, Bach and Beethoven. A number of the other compositions performed will have references to Judaism. Ohad Ben-Ari is an Israeli pianist and composer. He has been living in Berlin since 2010. Created for the concert, his composition of “Violins of Hope” will be played at it. The violin solos will be performed by Guy Braunstein, the Israeli former concert master of the Berlin Philharmonic. “He has been one of my customers ever since he started playing the violin,” says Amnon Weinstein.
Resounding with a special sound
Weinstein's recounting has not stopped him from proceeding with his delicate work. There is suddenly a knock on the door. A young man bearing an old violin case shyly enters the room. In the case is the instrument played by Ahuva Friedman, his deceased mother, during her childhood in Romania. In 1948, at the age of 13, she emigrated to Israel – accompanied by her violin, which spent many years in her attic. Her sons have planned a ceremony of commemoration in her honor. The violin is to be restored to life for that purpose. Weinstein gives the violin a quick appraisal. He states that it is typical of violins played by Jews in those days.
Weinstein then proposes a deal to the young man. Amnon says that he will need three to four months to get the violin in shape to be played in concert halls and not just at home among family and friends. He is prepared to do the work free of charge. In exchange, he would ask to be allowed to make the violin part of his collection. Doing such would enable the violin – which would then contain a label (placed in its interior) commemorating the young man's mother – to “return to life” by being part of the world of music.
Do these standard violins have a special sound? “Yes,” says Amnon Weinstein, who himself used to be a professional violinist. He suddenly looks up. “It comes from the musicians' knowing the stories of these instruments. They thus play them differently. Not 100% differently, but, rather, 1000%.”