tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post2639377353311949270..comments2024-02-09T16:00:40.486+01:00Comments on Edith's Miscellany: Book Review: The Auschwitz Violin by Maria Àngels AngladaEdith LaGrazianahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07885017198423641770noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-69361747473950117482018-04-17T17:42:31.220+02:002018-04-17T17:42:31.220+02:00www.byutv.org at Christmas has a movie they showed...www.byutv.org at Christmas has a movie they showed called "Instrument of War".<br />It's a true story movie about a violinist who builds a violin in a Concentration Camp. It's a great movie! Aye-Aye-R-O-Nhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07076201551517732720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-76677289531211228842018-01-18T12:31:42.649+01:002018-01-18T12:31:42.649+01:00My pleasure, Becky!My pleasure, Becky!Edith LaGrazianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07885017198423641770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-51353139085853872292018-01-18T12:30:56.086+01:002018-01-18T12:30:56.086+01:00Only three of four have devoted their lives to mus...Only three of four have devoted their lives to music and two of the books are re-blogs because I no longer write weekly reviews. However, I hope that you'll like the novels that I picked :-)Edith LaGrazianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07885017198423641770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-12197845193195409622018-01-18T12:28:45.686+01:002018-01-18T12:28:45.686+01:00Thanks four your long expert comment, Mel! It was ...Thanks four your long expert comment, Mel! It was in the back of my mind that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army on a day in January, but I wasn't aware that it's at the same time the International Holocaust Day. I'm glad that you drew my attention to it.<br /><br />It's true that many important European authors were victims of the holocaust - be it directly like Irène Nemirovky, Janusz Korczak, or Antal Szerb, be it indirectly like Stefan Zweig who killed himself in Brasilian exile.<br /><br />The books you named sound very interesting. I had heard of the orchestra in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and I knew that there were orchestras in the great concentration camps like Auschwitz, but I never thought of the role they may have played later on in Israel and elsewhere. Doing a bit of research I found a website <a href="http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/" rel="nofollow"><i>Music and the Holocaust</i></a>. It gives an interesting introduction into the topic.Edith LaGrazianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07885017198423641770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-68669113288670081762018-01-10T03:10:36.931+01:002018-01-10T03:10:36.931+01:00This one sounds good. Thanks for the review.This one sounds good. Thanks for the review.Beckyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00793618692608823102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-67282780266647631432018-01-07T19:23:16.736+01:002018-01-07T19:23:16.736+01:00I commend your dedication and theme this month. An...I commend your dedication and theme this month. And look forward to your coming reviews of novels with protagonists who devoted their lives to music.Judy Kruegerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11632346091869688862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4322995747669796194.post-57366578175183396082018-01-07T00:14:45.811+01:002018-01-07T00:14:45.811+01:00For several years I have done a post in observatio...For several years I have done a post in observation of International Holocaust Day, held on January 27. Last year i posted on a nonfiction work, the Jewish History Work of the Year Award Winner very tied into your post<br /><br /><br />International Holocaust Day is an observation of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. The Holocaust can be seen in many ways. I have posted on a number of Holocaust related works as well as classic works of Yiddish literature. I see the Holocaust as a war on the reading life. Never has there been a culture more dedicated to the absorption of the written war than that of Central European and Russian Jews. First the Nazis burned their books, then their bodies. There is no totalitarian group in the world that is not Anti-Semitic. Being anti- Jewish and Anti-Semitic should be understood as related but separate things, both repugnant. To me the Holocaust is made somehow personal by the death at 42 of one of my most beloved authors, Irene Nemirovsky who died a month after arriving at Auschwitz.<br /><br />This is my second year posting in observation of this day. Not just Jews died in the Holocaust and I hope one day there will be a greater awareness of this.<br /><br />Violins of the Holocaust-Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind's Darkest Hour by James A. Grymes tells the story the violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. He writes in a very illuminating fashion about the importance of the violin in Central and Eastern European Jewish culture. The book focuses on the twenty years the famous Israeli violin restorer Annon Weinstein spent working on these violins. Grymes tells the story, some of survival aided by the violins and some of death of the men who played them. Along the way we learn of the genesis of classical music in Israel. Mel uhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08714473754458914681noreply@blogger.com