2. Alma Rosé
Alma Rosé was born in 1906
into a very famous family at
the turn of the 19th
century
Vienna - father Arnold was
the esteemed concert-
master of the Vienna
Philharmonic while mother
Justine Mahler was the
sister of Gustav Mahler,the
famous composer.

3. Alma subsequently became a celebrated violinist in her own right.
In 1932 she founded the woman’s orchestra Die Wiener Walzermädeln (The Waltzing Girls of
Vienna). She led as conductor-soloist in concert tours throughout Europe. They disbanded
when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938.

4. At the outbreak of WWII, life gradually became difficult and
dangerous for the Jews in Vienna, but Alma was fortunate to emigrate
successfully with her father to London.

5. Unfortunately, she needed money to support him in his forced retirement, so accepted recital work in
Holland, then a seemingly safe neutral country. After two years there, the Nazis invaded and she was
forced to flee. Her luck ran out-she was captured and sent first to Drancy, then on to Auschwitz
Concentration camp.

6. Alma Rosé was originally held in the dreaded Block 10 - the medical experiments unit - but when it was
discovered that she was a famous violinist she was put in charge of the Women's Orchestra.
Photo:Stephan van der Hoorn

7. .
The orchestra contained an odd mix of instruments . In the
concert dedicated to her by the Ra’anana Symphonette
Orchestra, the first part of Beethoven’s 5th
symphony was
played by the orchestra and … mandolins . It is said that
this is how Alma and her orchestra used to play this piece
of music.

8. During her 10 months as conductor none of
her musicians were gassed or died from
other causes, almost a miracle in that
hellish environment.

9. Alma died on 4.4.44 probably from food poisoning. She
was 37. In a bizarre twist, one of the doctors who tried
to save her was Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death“
himself.
Author: C.Puisney

10. ‫דביר‬ ‫ביתן‬ ‫זמורה‬ ‫כינרת‬ ‫הספרים‬ ‫הוצאת‬ ‫)באדיבות‬ ‫רוזה‬ ‫אלמה‬
The Women's Orchestra continued to
receive relatively preferential
treatment until September 1944,
when they were evacuated to the
Bergen-Belsen camp; all but two
of Rosé's players lived to see the
end of the war.

11. Richard Newman's biography "Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz" (2000(

12. My Father’s Violin
By Helen Wininger Livnat
In remembrance of the “SHOA”, the Holocaust
To play the violin-
Your eyes bursting with
tears
Across the worst of pains.

13. The sane world is dying in front of you
But you can’t save the doomed .

14. Helen
To play –with your
murdered dead
around you
And your baby daughter
has no food left.
To play– in front of your
joyous enemies.
To be rewarded by peels
from the trash
And a quarter loaf of
black bread.

15. All this will never happen to us!
The Holocaust happened one too many times

16. But
No one will expel us
No one will burn us
In any country in the world
Because I have my own country now.
Translated from Hebrew/Ruthie Artman-Breindler

17. Feivel Wininger
loved his violin
passionately ,
'my best friend' he
called it. Until the day
of his death in 2002,
he enjoyed playing
the simple violin that
saved his life.

18. My Dad's violin is still alive, playing and telling the story.
Special concerts are taking place in North Carolina U.S in these very days. Artists are playing on
“ Violins of Hope “ , violins that rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
Our representative there is my father, Feivel Winninger’s violin . With his violin and his musical talent, he fed 17 family
members and friends for two hellish years in the camps in Transnistria.
The 'old' fiddle , a simple violin, just over a hundred years old - goes on telling a huge story of love, life on the edge of
death and is taking the story to the whole world.
A couple of years ago “he” played at the Wailing Wall in front of 3000 people, then in Switzerland.
He has been playing and telling the story that my father, Rest in Peace, can not do anymore .The sounds are crying and
they are tired , but they will never stop telling the story.
The violin, that my father called 'friend' –is alive and is a messenger to the world instead of the crying of all those
people whose cries will never be heard.
May their memory be blessed!

19. http://www.violinsofhopecharlotte.com/stories.html
http://nineronline.com/2012/violins-of-hope-brings-holocaust
Music : Robert Schumann, "Träumerei“
Poem : Helen Wininger Livnat, writer
Photos :
Personal
From the net – credit to their owners
Info : Wikipedia
The presentation shown at the concert of the
Ra’anana orchestra
April 19, 2012
Holocaust
The glass museum, Arad,Israel