43
Exhibition serves as reminder of the Holocaust Violins of Hope
IF YOU GO
What: “Violins of Hope”
When: Friday through Jan. 3
Info: Call 216-593-0575, or go to maltzmuseum.org
By John Benson
There’s no denying the power of music.
During the Holocaust, Jewish musicians lucky enough to escape execution often found solace and dignity through their violins. Today, those same violins act as a reminder of the horrors that came to light seven decades ago with the end of WW II.
Specifically, the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is spearheading a community-wide collaboration – including Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Orchestra, Facing History and Ourselves, ideastream and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland – with the “Violins of Hope” exhibition, which is on display Friday through Jan. 3 at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.
“The violins are from the collection of Israeli violin maker Amnon Weinstein, who gathered violins that made their way through the Holocaust in various ways,” said Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage Executive Director Ellen Rudolph. “He restored them so they could be played on a concert stage.”
For more than 20 years, the second-generation master violin maker, who lost hundreds of relatives in the Holocaust, has been restoring violins that have been played in concert halls around the world.
As far as “Violins of Hope,” this original exhibit highlights 19 violins on display – 18 from Weinstein’s collection and one making its American debut on loan from Yad Vashem (the World Center for Documentation, Research, Education and Commemoration of the Holocaust). Each violin comes with a story, which ranges from being played to entertain SS officers in a concentration camp to an instrument employed in a plot to blow up a Nazi soldiers club.
“One of the challenges was trying to display violins in a way that was interesting because violins are, for the most part, all the same,” Rudolph said. “So what we came up with was a very emotional dramatic space in which to display these violins.”
Designed with dramatic lighting and circular pods constructed with string to evoke the violin, the exhibition is a multisensory experience that actively engages the visitor through narratives, imagery and video. Further, the immersive space allows visitors to reflect on the transcendent nature of music.
“Something we thought very carefully about was illustrating the diversity of experiences of people during the Holocaust,” Rudolph said. “There were some people who got out of Germany and were able to immigrate. Others wound up in ghettos and concentration camps. We wanted to chart the arc of the Holocaust from the rise of anti-Semitism through the end of WW II.”
Naturally, “Violins of Hope” boasts a musical element. Visitors will hear a soundtrack of period-appropriate classical and Klezmer music; however, at times the exhibit will feature students from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music playing the violins.
“I hope visitors seeing the exhibition will be reminded of the power of music,” Rudolph said. “Many people were able to use their instruments to survive. Their ability to play got them through either literally, because they were selected to play in an orchestra, or because playing music sustained them in some ways and made them feel human.
“The hope is people can get a better understanding of the Holocaust and connect to the people who played those instruments.”