This story has it all. Sadness, murder, bravery, friendship, love, loss and rediscovery. Thanks to an act of friendship and bravery, a nearly 280 year old violin has survived and is now being used to share the stories of millions of victims who died in the Holocaust. The violin belonged to Fanny Hecht, a Jewish woman who lived with her family in Amsterdam in 1943. The music came to an abrupt end when Fanny and her family were taken to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and never returned, murdered – along with approximately 6 million Jewish people.
Fanny became friends with her neighbour Helena Visser and would play together along with Helena’s daughter, who was only about eight or nine at the time. Before the Nazis arrested Fanny, she asked her friend to save her cherished violin.
Honouring one her friend’s last wishes, Helena snuck into Fanny’s apartment and saved the violin, keeping it safe in hopes of one day returning it to its rightful owner. It was handed down to Janet Bosse’s mother-in-law, who continued the search to return the violin to the Hecht family. Eventually Bosse learned that Fanny had been killed in Asuchewtiz, and the rest of her family murdered by the Nazis. Now what to do with the heirloom violin.
It was by chance that Bosse and her mother-in-law came across Violins of Hope – an organization that preserves the violins of Holocaust victims to ensure they continue to be played. It is set to be featured in a concert by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, creating the same beautiful music that at one time provided a glimmer of hope in dark times. Following the concert, Fanny’s violin will be put on display in the Holocaust gallery in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, where it will share Fanny’s story until March.
The story of the Hecht violin.
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