Secret note found hidden in Jewish prisoner’s violin at Dachau concentration camp

28 April 2025, 16:34 | Updated: 28 April 2025, 16:44

A violin from a Nazi concentration camp nearly went unnoticed for over eight decades, then a secret note changed everything.

In 1941, while imprisoned at Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, a Jewish violin maker built an instrument that would go on to be known as the ‘violin of hope’ In it, he left a note that would not be discovered for over 80 years.

When Hungarian arts dealers, Szandra Katona and Tamás Tálosi came across the violin, they were initially intending to donate it. Then, when their friend looked in the violin’s F-hole, they found a note left by its creator that changed everything they understood about the instrument.

“Trial instrument, made under difficult conditions with no tools and materials,” the worn note on the inside of the violin read. “Dachau. Anno 1941, Franciszek Kempa.”

The violin had been stored among a set of purchased furniture for years, and when the art dealers sent it out for repairs, its history came to light. The professional repairing it was puzzled by what they saw: although the craftsmanship suggested it was built by a skilled maker, the wood was of poor quality.

“If you look at its proportions and structure, you can see that it’s a master violin, made by a man who was proficient in his craft,” said Szandra Katona, one of the art dealers who discovered the violin’s origins, “But the choice of wood was completely incomprehensible.”

The repairer, in a bid to understand its origins, disassembled the violin, revealing Kempa’s hidden note.

Read more: Long-lost Stradivarius violin stolen by Nazis during Second World War found in France

Dachau, located near Munich, was the first concentration camp established by the Nazis in March 1933. It initially housed political prisoners but later became a model for other camps, imprisoning Jews, Roma and others targeted by the Nazi regime. At least 40,000 people are believed to have died there due to starvation, disease, execution, or mistreatment before its liberation on 29 April 1945.

Musical instruments were present in concentration camps during World War II, and Nazi leaders often encouraged the formation of musician groups within the camps as a mode of propaganda to mislead the outside world about life within them.

A wide range of musical activities took place in Dachau, both forced and voluntary. Testimonies from prisoners include descriptions of orchestral concerts, cabaret performances, communal singing, choirs, church music and forced singing.

All known instruments that survived Dachau are believed to have been brought in by prisoners. Kempa’s ‘violin of hope’ as it has been named, is the only known instrument actually built inside the camp.

Kempa’s note, then, has been deemed a kind of explanation or apology. Although it is unknown exactly why he built the violin, this master violin maker was forced to work within unimaginable conditions and made something that he felt was inadequate.

Kempa survived the war and returned to his native Poland to continue making instruments before dying in 1953. He was known to the Nazis as an instrument maker, and Tálosi suggested this is how he survived.

“We named it the ‘violin of hope’ because if someone ends up in a difficult situation, having a task or a challenge helps them get through a lot of things,” Tálosi said. “You focus not on the problem, but on the task itself, and I think this helped the maker of this instrument to survive the concentration camp.”