The Lost Violin of Kraków
Stanislav always knew that he wanted to make musical instruments. I met him entirely by accident as I wandered the backstreets of Kraków, the beautifully mediaeval Polish town lying an hour from the infamous camps of Auschwitz. I had noticed him crafting a violin by the light streaming through the window of this small workshop and was intrigued by the beauty of his craft.
Naturally reticent, Stanislav is a man of few words, but the words he does speak convey his absolute passion for his art. He described memories of his early years growing up in the mountains of Poland, watching his neighbour, a renowned instrument maker, create beautiful string instruments.
Something about the tactile process of turning raw wood into beautifully crafted instruments fascinated the young Stanislav; it was a fascination that eventually led him to begin making his instruments of his own. He told me of his pride when he completed his first instrument made entirely by himself, a guitar that he completed in 1971. Today, musicians come from around the world to his backstreet workshop seeking his handmade instruments.
While every instrument he creates is special for Stanislav, some hold particular meaning to him. As we spoke, he told me about the day, nearly twenty years ago, when a young couple came in search of Stanislav's advice. They had found a small piece of a violin wrapped in newspaper and hidden in a house they had recently moved into. The previous occupants, a Jewish family later murdered in Auschwitz by the Nazis, had abandoned the house following the invasion of Poland, and it had remained empty ever since.
Stanislav immediately recognised the tiny violin piece was from a very special instrument. Knowing that many Jewish families who once lived in the city had resorted to hiding their prize possessions before fleeing with little more than the clothes on their backs, Stanislav advised the couple to search the house for the rest of the instrument.
Over time, the house slowly whispered its secrets, revealing the violin's missing pieces one by one until Stanislav could use his lifetime of knowledge to reassemble the violin that had remained hidden for nearly half a century. The process had required painstaking care and all his skill, but he eventually brought the beautiful instrument back to life. What had once been nothing more than broken pieces scattered throughout an abandoned house was reborn. Shortly after, the restored violin, which dates from 1812, finally fulfilled its destiny, playing in an orchestra for the first time since it had been lost all those years ago.
Sometimes in life, the universe puts you exactly where you need to be. Stanislav had dedicated his life to breathing life into the musical instruments he created. From the years he spent watching his childhood mentor at work to the lifetime he dedicated to developing his skills, the course of his life had guided him inexorably towards the moment the young couple came into his workshop with the first piece of the violin that had been waiting patiently in its hiding place. The universe had put Stanislav where he needed to be.
Today the Lost Violin of Kraków sings out in unerring testimony to all the victims of the Holocaust; every note played a small but powerful victory over those who try to silence their voices. Long may it play on in their memory.
