Rare violin tests Germany s commitment to atone for its Nazi past
Felix Hildesheimers music store in Speyer, Germany. The store occupied the first floor of the building, and the Hildesheimers lived on the floors above. Via David Sand via The New York Times.
by Catherine Hickley
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- No one knows why Felix Hildesheimer, a Jewish dealer in music supplies, purchased a precious violin built by the Cremonese master Giuseppe Guarneri at a shop in Stuttgart, Germany, in January 1938. His own store had lost its non-Jewish customers because of Nazi boycotts, and his two daughters fled the country shortly afterward. His grandsons say its possible that Hildesheimer was hoping he could sell the violin in Australia, where he and his wife, Helene, planned to build a new life with their younger daughter.