On October 9th, Violins of Hope visited Wheeling Park High School in the Performing Arts Center. Strings teachers and students in Ohio County were invited to play the historical violins. Throughout the performance, speakers from the project provided background knowledge on the violins’ horrific history. It all started with the founder and promoter of the project, Amnon Weinstein, who was born in Palestine in 1939 during the gruesome time of the Holocaust. He played the viola and trumpet and then later studied under his father, a violin-maker. His passion for music made him start Violins of Hope, which began accepting violins in disrepair from Jewish survivors of the holocaust. Some of the violins were even played by survivors in the concentration camps and ghettos. Now they are decorated with the star of David which is a symbol of Jewish identity. While the history of some violins was not always clear, it was clear that these instruments were a symbol of Jewish traditions that were lost in the destruction of the Holocaust. They are a way for listeners to hear and see the history of the people. They represent how even throughout tough situations they survived and persevered after all this hate. Over the past several years, these violins have been played in multiple prestigious concerts such as the Cleveland Symphony and the Berlin Philarmonic, according to their website Violins of Hope.com.
During their time here at the Park, students listened to multiple songs, that told the story of the violins through different tones and sounds.
Students also acquired knowledge on the backgrounds of restored violins in the project.
“I think it was a special connection with the people who were playing the instruments during those tough times and I think it was just overall really special to play, I spent some time in developmental guidance preparing to play with everyone involved”, said Senior Orchestra Member, Ariauna Friend. She was among the many students asked to play some of the historical violins alongside the Ohio County strings teachers and other players.
Some of the students in the audience were members of the History of the Holocaust class here at the park, formerly taught by Mr. Galik but now taught by Mr. Triveri.
“Well I took the class here at Park when I was a sophomore in 2006 under Mr.Galik, and after I took that class I got serious about history, I always wanted to be a teacher but that was the class that pushed me to be a history teacher, It just felt sort of like fait to teach the class after him. After WW1, Germany in a sense was humiliated that they were demolished, there was a discourse between what really happened and what they believed had happened, which is called the Stab in the Back Myth, that Germany was stabbed in the back by their rivals and the Jewish population, and that dominant theme of violence is what led a lot of really extreme people not just Hitler to demonize and provide a sense of mistrust towards the Jewish population as well, and so continuous hatred of the Jewish peoples to the point where they were treated as not human, and even Romani people, people with disabilities, Slavic peoples and other political rivals made it easy for them to perform these heinous acts, I encourage people to learn about the Holocaust and treat it very sadly as something that’s common in history and that I tell people that it’s shocking, with the exception of the details of what happened in the ghettos and gas chambers and the final solution, that most of it is so common throughout history, and that if we can understand it we can recognize it more”, said Triveri.
The important message that Violins of Hope is portraying is that humans and music can overcome even the most horrific conditions and circumstances and that the Holocaust did not achieve its goal of erasing the Jewish culture or population. The string instruments are a symbol of hope and memory that one of history’s greatest tragedies should not be forgotten.
