Northeast Indiana Presentations
A comprehensive education and community engagement effort designed by noted education experts will tell stories about the Holocaust and Violins of Hope through music for everyone in Northeast Indiana. Noted education experts have developed three community engagement efforts that will take the story of the Violins of Hope to Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana.
IN-SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS
High school social studies, language arts, and music teachers will be able to provide their students with the opportunity to learn about the remarkable instruments that comprise the Violins of Hope collection by scheduling no-cost presentations in their schools. Each 40-minute presentation will begin with a brief overview of Holocaust history before focusing on the stories of several violins. Background resource materials will be provided to teachers who schedule this presentation for their students.
Each 40-minute presentation will include a brief overview of Holocaust history and the violin in Jewish culture before focusing on the Violins of Hope project and the stories of several of the violins.
COMMUNITY PRESENTATIONS
A presentation designed for community organizations will be offered during September and October 2019. These presentations will include a brief introduction to Jewish culture and Holocaust history combined with stories about the violins, archival photographs, videos, and music. This presentation may be scheduled by social service groups, community organizations, clubs, and religious institutions.
IN-SCHOOL ENSEMBLE PRESENTATIONS
During these presentations, students will be engaged in a study of the Holocaust and the Violins of Hope project as musicians from the Fort Wayne Philharmonic perform using instruments from the collection. These in-school presentations may be scheduled during the week of November 11-15, 2019. Each ensemble presentation should be preceded by an in-school presentation to ensure that students can appreciate both the historical and musical importance of the project.
For additional information and to schedule presentations, please click here and then fill out this form. Contact [email protected] with questions.
General Reference Works
A History of the Holocaust (Revised Edition)
The author traces the three-part evolution of antisemitism – religious, socio/cultural, racial - and provides a comprehensive description of how and why the Holocaust occurred.
The Destruction of the European Jews
The student edition of The Destruction of the European Jews makes accessible Hilberg’s classic account of Germany’s annihilation of Europe’s Jewish communities in 1933-1945. Perhaps more than any other book, it poses the question: How did it happen?
The Holocaust: A Concise History
This short text provides an excellent introduction to Holocaust history for readers who are new to the subject while providing interesting perspectives for more experienced students of the event. Bergen’s focus on key structural ideas (“Race and Space,” “No War, No Holocaust”) allows the reader to grasp subtle concepts while not being overwhelmed by a more detailed analysis.
Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe
Called the pre-eminent scholar of the Holocaust by the New York Times, Hilberg tells the stories of those who caused, experienced, and witnessed the great human catastrophe.
Tell Them We Remember
This book contains photos and personal stories of those who survived persecution by the Nazi regime, as well as those who perished.
The World Must Know: The Story of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2nd Ed.).
Written from the perspective of a tour through the United States Holocaust Museum, The World Must Know contains text and photographs displayed in the museum’s permanent exhibition. The book emphasizes the use of archival photographs as it sets and develops the event’s context and historical record.
Literary Anthologies
Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology
Langer’s text is the most far-reaching collection of art, drama, poetry, and prose about the Holocaust ever presented in a single volume. Essays, stories, and extensive selections have been chosen from the works of noted poets. This volume also features a visual essay in the form of reproductions of twenty works of art created in the Terezin concentration camp.
The Call of Memory: Learning about the Holocaust Through Narrative
Including twenty-seven short stories by Holocaust survivors and contemporary writers, this anthology is organized chronologically and thematically, allowing teachers to incorporate selections appropriately in any related course of study. The text is appropriate for all high school, college, and university classes about the Holocaust. A companion Teacher's Guide illuminates each story with a literary analysis and useful teaching suggestions.
Images from the Holocaust: A Literature Anthology
Entries in this anthology include fiction (both short stories and excerpts from novels), poetry, historical accounts, biographical sketches, and drama. Each entry is preceded by a brief biographical note about the author and an introduction.
Out of the Whirlwind: A Reader of Holocaust Literature
This classic anthology has been revised and expanded to include more than 40 accounts that stand as testimony to the broad range of experiences of the Holocaust.
Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust
This book includes excerpts from diaries written by fifteen youngsters who were swept up by the Holocaust. The selections take the reader through both the hope and the despair experienced by the writers.
Films and Documentaries
Conspiracy
Based upon notes taken by one of the participants at the Wannsee Conference (January 1942), this film recreates the meeting on a minute-by-minute basis. The business-like approach taken by those in attendance emphasizes the systematic, bureaucratic nature of the Holocaust.
Denial
This docudrama relates what has been called “The Holocaust on Trial,” the legal battle during which British historian and Holocaust denier David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel. Both the existence of Holocaust denial and the overwhelming nature of the factual record are emphasized throughout the film.
Genocide
Genocide is the story of man's inhumanity to man—the story of the millions of men, women and children who fell victim to the "Final Solution." This film is a unique, multi-image documentary that combines historical narrative with stories of ordinary people trapped in the Nazi regime’s reign of terror.
The Holocaust: In Memory of Millions
This documentary combines original footage and personal photographs with oral histories by those who survived the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz survivor and Nobel laureate, recounts his experiences and the significance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a living memorial to those affected by the Holocaust.
Schindler’s List
Businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) arrives in Krakow in 1939, ready to make his fortune from World War II. After joining the Nazi party as a matter of political expediency, he staffs his factory with Jewish workers for similarly pragmatic reasons. When the SS begins exterminating Jews in the Krakow ghetto, Schindler arranges to have his workers protected to in order to keep his factory in operation, but soon refocuses his efforts on saving the lives of his workers.
The World at War, Volume XX: Genocide, 1941-1945
Narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, "The World at War" draws upon an extraordinary collection of WWII footage from newsreels, propaganda films, and home movies--including rare footage of Hitler taken by Eva Braun—gathered from both the victorious and the conquered. This film includes interviews with those who were eyewitnesses to history: journalists, housewives, soldiers, and historians, as well as survivors of Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and Dresden.
Violins of Hope
Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust, narrated by Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, is a documentary featuring Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein and his efforts to restore violins recovered from the Holocaust. Some were played by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps; others belonged to the Klezmer musical culture, which was all but destroyed by the Nazis.
Defiance
It is 1941, and the SS is slaughtering Eastern European Jews by the thousands. The Bielski brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), and Asael (Jamie Bell), manage to escape and take refuge in the forest where they played during childhood. Seeking a way to avenge the deaths of their loved ones, the brothers turn their daily struggle for survival into a battle against the German forces that have occupied their country. As news of their exploits spreads, others willing to risk their lives for even brief freedom join the fray. Journalist Assaela Weinstein, the wife of Violins of Hope founder Amnon Weinstein, is the daughter of Asael Bielski, one of the Bielski partisans immortalized in Defiance.
Videos
The Feivel Wininger Violin
Before the Holocaust, Feivel Wininger lived in Romania with his elderly parents, wife and baby daughter Helen. In October 1941, he and thousands of other Jews were deported by train to the swampland of Transnistria and further into Ukraine. After settling in the Ukrainian ghetto of Shargorod, Wininger found a way to survive. A famous judge who also happened to an amateur violinist recognized him as the gifted child-violinist who he had seen years ago. The judge gave him his violin, an Italian Amati model. Now there was music — and hope.
The Silence of the Violin
Auschwitz survived Violin that was muted for 65 years, reborn to life and now played around the world by violin players-the film was created by Kiriat Tivon Community TV in Israel.
Violins of Hope Concert 2015
The Cleveland Orchestra, with soloist Shlomo Mintz, performs at the opening of Silver Hall in the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at the Temple-Tifereth Israel.
Violins of Hope
Video and live footage highlighting the Violins of Hope project created by master Violin craftsman Amnon Weinstein. The project features violins that survived the Holocaust and that have been restored to concert-level condition in his Tel Aviv-based workshop.
Violins of Hope – A Powerful Symbol
Israeli violin maker Avshi Weinstein shares the story of one of the most shocking instruments in the Violins of Hope — a violin that was secretly inscribed with a hateful message. Today, it stands as a reminder about why the stories of these instruments must continue to be told 75 years after the Holocaust.
Violins of Hope Sarasota-Manatee
Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein and Avshalom Weinstein discussed their project "Violins of Hope" which is dedicated to locating and restoring violins played by Jewish victims of the Holocaust. As part of the presentation, internationally known violinist Hannah Tarley played musical selections on one of the restored violins.
We Must Remember
The Purdue Fort Wayne Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies YouTube channel hosts the 1991 documentary "We Must Remember," featuring oral testimonies of Fort Wayne Holocaust survivors. Originally distributed by the Fort Wayne Jewish Federation and Congregation Achduth Vesholom, the documentary is now available through IHGS' YouTube channel in its complete version, as well as in segments especially suited for classroom use.
Music
Heartstrings: Music of the Holocaust
This music collection includes 60 songs sung in Yiddish that are preserved in the Yad Vashem Archives. Created in ghettoes, camps, and by partisans during the Holocaust, these songs tell the stories of individuals, groups, and communities as they endured the event. They were a source of unity, comfort, and later, documentation and remembrance.
Music of the Holocaust
For many victims of Nazi brutality, music was an important means of preserving and asserting their humanity. Such music—particularly the topical songs—also serves as a form of historical documentation. Similar to “audio snapshots,” these works provide a window into the events and emotions that their creators and original audiences experienced firsthand.
Radio and Audio Programs
Violins of Hope: Instruments from the Holocaust
The Violins of Hope are Amnon Weinstein's resistance. They're like tombstones, he says, for the thousands of Jewish instruments and musicians destroyed in the war.
Listen
Museums
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the official memorial to the Holocaust in the USA. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Museum provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. It is dedicated to helping leaders and citizens of the world confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.
Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Yad Vashem focuses on documentation, education, and commemoration of the Holocaust. It is a dynamic site of intergenerational and inernational encounters.
Holocaust Memorial Center
Located in the northwest suburbs of Detroit, the Holocaust Memorial Center’s mission statement holds that “The Holocaust is a history not only of evil, although the evil is undeniable, but also of great courage, strength and righteousness.” Its exhibit provides “a rude awakening that education, including religious education, is no barrier against hatred and violence.
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Located just north of Chicago, The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center centers its mission on “Remembering the Past: Transforming the Future.” The center’s exhibit focuses on the stories of victims of the Holocaust while encouraging the teaching of universal lessons that confront hatred, prejudice, and indifference.
Websites
The Holocaust Chronicle
This website provides the full text of the book The Holocaust Chronicle.The Holocaust Chronicle, written and fact-checked by top scholars, recounts the long, complex, and anguishing story of the most terrible crime of the 20th century.
Centropa: An Interactive Database of Jewish Memory
The first oral history project that combines old family pictures with the stories that go with them, Centropa has interviewed 1,200 elderly Jews living in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Sephardic communities of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. With a database of 22,000 digitized images, Centropa is bringing Jewish history to life in ways never done before.
USC Shoah Foundation
USC Shoah Foundation–The Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action.
Personal Stories
The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany
Martin Goldsmith’s text is a moving and personal account of the search for his family’s identity. The book tracks the extraordinary story of his parents, Gunther Goldschmidt and Rosemarie Gumpert, two courageous Jewish musicians who struggled to perform under unimaginable circumstances while finding themselves falling in love in a country bent on destroying them. The story of Gunther and Rosemarie is a poignant testament to the enduring vitality of music and love even in the harshest times. The Inextinguishable Symphony offers a compelling look at an important piece of Holocaust history that has gone largely untold.
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All But My Life
All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang. (ISBN 0-8090-2460-8)
All But My Life is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein's six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home in present-day Bielsko in Poland to her miraculous survival and liberation by American troops--including the man who was to become her husband--Gerda takes the reader on a terrifying journey yet offers hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.
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The Children of Willesden Lane
The Children of Willesden Lane; Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival. New York: Wagner Books. (ISBN 0-446-69027-9)
Fourteen-year-old Lisa Jura was a musical prodigy who hoped to become a concert pianist. But when Hitler's armies advanced on pre-war Vienna, Lisa's parents were forced to make a difficult decision. Able to secure passage for only one of their three daughters through the Kindertransport, they chose to send gifted Lisa to London for safety.