Author Sonia Beker is the daughter of Max Beker and Fania Durmashkin, accomplished musicians in pre-war Vilna, Lithuania, who shared their music in the Vilna ghetto and, finally, the St. Ottilien Displaced Persons Camp where they first met in 1945. Their reputation was such that Leonard Bernstein was told of the remarkable Jewish survivor orchestra who performed in their striped concentration camp uniforms, and he arranged to conduct them. Her father’s instrument is one of the Violins of Hope restored by Amnon Weinstein and has been played in concert since its refurbishment. RSVP here
