Violin offered by Goebbels in 1943 ........

[maestrob]

A Violin Once Owned by Goebbels Keeps Its SecretsBy CARLA SHAPREAU
JOSEPH GOEBBELS, in a pinstripe suit, his hair slicked back, gave a simple but philosophical speech about the importance of music. Then, smiling, he handed over the violin to a young woman.

The passing was captured on film: the violin’s elegant outline, the figure on its flamed-maple back, the wear pattern of its varnish.

Japan’s ambassador to Germany, Hiroshi Oshima, was on hand to witness the transfer. Nejiko Suwa, 23, played her new gift on the spot.

The next day Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, wrote in his diary: “I am offering the Japanese violinist Suwa a Stradivarius violin. Oshima, who attends the reception of this young girl who makes an extremely likable impression, is delighted about this gift.”

Ms. Suwa responded with gratitude. “I will continue to work hard not to disgrace this masterpiece,” she told the Japanese press.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/arts/ ... ft.html?hp

url includes a video of Ms. Suwa playing Mendelssohn.

[Steinway]

Interesting.

My gut tells me that some unfortunate person heading for Buchenwald was the owner of this instrument.

Gifts from a Nazi madman would make me very skeptical, had I been a promising violinist in Germany and if I had accepted the instrument, I'd have spent a lot of time and energy to learn who the legitimate owner was.

[Donald Isler]

I also think it's very likely that it was stolen from someone who ended up in a bad place, unless he/she was able to emigrate. The violinist's nephew now has the instrument and "regrets" that he can't discuss the matter.

[Agnes Selby]

I think had she or he emigrated, the violin would have travelled with this person.
I wonder if any of you have seen the film "The Train", based on a true
story about how the Germans tried to transport the paintings from the Louvre to Germany.

[Donald Isler]

Of course you may be right, Agnes. On the other hand, a woman we know in Germany has just sent us pages and pages of Xeroxes of official forms of the Third Reich listing, in numerous ways and in great detail, all the possessions and assets (ie. just about everything) which they were confiscating from my mother's aunt and uncle who had, by then, fortunately, left the country. So I think it is possible that they might have also taken away a very valuable instrument from someone who was trying to emigrate.

[maestrob]

Interesting.

My gut tells me that some unfortunate person heading for Buchenwald was the owner of this instrument.

Gifts from a Nazi madman would make very skeptical, had I been a promising violinist in Germany and if I had accepted the instrument, I'd have spent a lot of time and energy to learn who the legitimate owner was.

It appears that this Japanese owner, while an citizen of a country allied with Germany at the time, was ambitious enough not to ask too many questions for the rest of her life. Her nephew seems to be cut from the same cloth.

I posted this here hoping someone knowing more than I would investigate.

[Agnes Selby]

Dear Donald, you are absolutely right. The Germans stole all valuables and even
murdered people for the gold in their teeth. However, on a happier note, Musica Viva Australia was formed by people who managed to bring their instruments with them, one of them was Richard Goldner after
whom the Australian Goldner Quartet is named. These people gathered in the living room of my husband's late aunt. Musica Viva Australia was born in Mrs Selby's living room and continues to this day. After the
war, when she was freed from the Japanese concentration camp, Lili Kraus joined the group and soon
Australian musicians became part of this wonderful story. Luckiily some great instruments avoided
Goebbel's attention and hence a wonderful musical enterprise was born.

[John F]

Just because the Nazis stole so much, doesn't mean they stole everything. The very long Times article mentions Goebbels's diary recording the purchase (not theft) of some "master violins" in 1940; possibly this was one of them. The Times also questions whether the fiddle really is a Stradivarius; apparently it hasn't been authenticated by an expert, and I don't suppose it will be until it is sold. Let's not make bricks without straw.

[Donald Isler]

That may be. On the other hand, that the violin was said to be "purchased" does not necessarily mean it was bought for what it was worth. A lot of Jewish owned property and businesses could probably be "purchased' for a fraction of their true worth in those days, when their owners had to flee for their lives. Also, if we accept that the Nazis said such items were 'purchased" is to automatically accept that this was true. Which it very well may not have been. Except for expressing their true intentions regarding genocide, honesty was not what they were best known for.

[John F]

Donald, this is still trying to make bricks without straw, or dropping the metaphor, to jump to a conclusion without directly relevant facts, and indeed in contradiction to such direct evidence as there is. The implication also is that Ms. Suha was somehow culpable for accepting the gift in good faith and keeping it, a line that Cliftwood and maestrob have taken. I think that's unfair.

[Donald Isler]

Disagree. I don't believe I'm being unfair at all. I acknowedge that we don't know the truth, and may never find it out. Perhaps it's all innocent. But the scenarios I have mentioned are not at all outlandish if one knows what went on in this days. And the fact that neither the violinist nor her nephew, who currently possesses the instrument, were ever willing to discuss the matter does not incline me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[arepo]

Disagree. I don't believe I'm being unfair at all. I acknowedge that we don't know the truth, and may never find it out. Perhaps it's all innocent. But the scenarios I have mentioned are not at all outlandish if one knows what went on in this days. And the fact that neither the violinist nor her nephew, who currently possesses the instrument, were ever willing to discuss the matter does not incline me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Yes Donald. What you said!!!!!

[John F]

Disagree. I don't believe I'm being unfair at all. I acknowedge that we don't know the truth, and may never find it out. Perhaps it's all innocent. But the scenarios I have mentioned are not at all outlandish if one knows what went on in this days. And the fact that neither the violinist nor her nephew, who currently possesses the instrument, were ever willing to discuss the matter does not incline me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Donald, for heaven's sake, it isn't about whether the scenarios you have mentioned are "not outlandish," but that you haven't a shred of evidence that they are true, as you yourself acknowledge. So it's all mere speculation.

What's not true is your claim that Ms. Suwa was never willing to discuss the matter. According to the Times, "She has denied in interviews that it was stolen and said it had been purchased by Goebbels’s ministry from a dealer in Silesia, a region with a history of shifting German, Polish, and Czech borders." The article does not question whether she thought she was telling the truth in those discussions, and we have no reason to doubt it. Since then, Ms. Suwa declined Sophie Lillie's requests for further information, and her nephew did likewise "at this time," leaving that door ajar. But if he decides not to respond to further requests for information about his property, he's entirely within his rights. And it is his property until proven otherwise.

If Ms. Lillie is serious about investigating the background of the instrument before it was given to Ms. Suwa, or if you want to do it yourself, the article mentions "Evidence of seizures and opaque transactions during the Nazi era ... scattered in a sea of archival records in the United States and Europe." This is the first place to look for where the body is buried, if there is a body. Ms. Suwa took Goebbels's word for it that the instrument is a Stradivarius and that it was not stolen goods; I should think it unlikely that she or her nephew have any first-hand information beyond what she was told in 1943. Further information will have to come from someone and somewhere else.

[Agnes Selby]

Well, whoever "SOLD" the violin to Goebbels will probably never come forward
as his ashes are probably strewn somewhere around Auschwitz.
It is really good, JohnF that you were born in the USA and not somewhere
in Silesia, etc., where the item "may" have been "purchased". It gives you an innocence
which I must admit, I envy.

Regards,
Agnes.

[Donald Isler]

Yes, I did make a mistake. She did discuss it, as you mentioned. And she may, or may not have known the truth about the instrument's history. But, to assume that what she was told must be true we must accept Mr. Goebbels word as a gentleman. I, for one, am not willing to do that.

[maestrob]

Yes, I did make a mistake. She did discuss it, as you mentioned. And she may, or may not have known the truth about the instrument's history. But, to assume that what she was told must be true we must accept Mr. Goebbels word as a gentleman. I, for one, am not willing to do that.

As you said.......