JHV 68 The Max Beker Violin
By the Klotz Family, Bavaria, Germany, 1790.
Ex-Concentration Camp Orchestra
Max Beker was born to a family with a long standing musical tradition in Vilna, Lithuania before moving to Poland. His grandfather was the conductor of the Czar’s brass band, and he played to help support the family. Max was drafted into the Polish army in 1939 and was soon captured. He was sent to Stalag VIIIA near Silesia as a prisoner of war. His fate improved when 63 of his Lithuanian inmate friends managed to gather some money and asked an Austrian guard to buy a violin for Max, who became a member of the camp orchestra. After being liberated, Max joined a Displaced Persons Camp in St. Ottlilien, where an orchestra of survivors was established. In 1948 it was Leonard Bernstein who conducted it, giving survivors a feeling of dignity and hope.