Photo by Joselyn King Avshi Weinstein tells students at the J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center at Wheeling Park High School Wednesday about his family’s efforts to restore violins once played by Jewish persons persecuted during the Holocaust. He and his father, the late Amnon Weinstein, developed the Holocaust education program, “Violins of Hope.”

WHEELING — Stories about the Holocaust resonated from violins once played by its victims as local school students were presented with an educational and emotional performance Wednesday at Wheeling Park High School.

The “Violins of Hope” Holocaust education program played out in the J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center before WPHS juniors and seniors, all high school and middle school string students in Ohio County, and middle school students from Wheeling Country Day School.

The event began with words from Barb Lewine, an Holocaust Education consultant for the West Virginia Commission on Holocaust Education.

She told the students that about 6 million people died as a result of the Holocaust, and that among them were 5 million Jews. Lewine put that in perspective by explaining that equals the entire population of West Virginia at 1.5 million people, plus that of neighboring Kentucky at 4.5 million.

“Through the Violins of Hope, we look at each violin as an individual who played it, and what happened to them, and what happened to their families,” Lewine said.

Violins of Hope is a project of educational concerts based on a private collection of violins, violas and cellos – all collected since the end of World War II by the late Amnon Weinstein and his son Avshi.

Many of them belonged to Jews before and during the war. Most were donated by or bought from survivors, and some arrived through family members.

For this week’s programs in Ohio County, four violins and one viola are being used in concerts featuring local musicians. Those playing are educators from Ohio County, Marshall County and West Liberty University, and they were under the direction of Shaun Hancher – music educator at Moundsville Middle School.

Avshi Weinstein took the stage Wednesday to tell the students how his family first began accruing the instruments.

His grandparents were Lithuanians who had immigrated to Israel in 1938, and much of their large families were murdered by Germans who invaded Russian regions in 1941.

His grandfather was a violinist, and worked as a musician. In 1939, he opened up a shop to sell instruments in Tel Aviv, and a major customer was the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. Many of the musicians came from Germany and Austria and had “very good German-made instruments,” Weinstein said.

But after the war, there was a strong anti-German feeling in Israel, and many of the musicians no longer wanted those instruments.

“Many of them came to my grandfather and sold him their instruments,” he continued. “He already knew that nobody wanted German instruments and he would never be able to sell them – and he never did.”

In 1990, his father Amnon Weinstein was approached with the idea of putting his grandfather’s collection together to help tell the stories of Holocaust survivors who came to Israel. He put out the word of the collection, and more violins – and their stories – came into the family’s collection.

Also present in Wheeling for the presentation on Wednesday was James Grymes, a professor from the University of North Carolina and author of the book “Violins of Hope,” which chronicles the stories behind some of the selected instruments.

Grymes explained there were a number of Jewish musicians who were able to survive the Holocaust by playing the violin. Some found themselves exiles and living in ghettos. But they nevertheless were able to earn some type of living by playing music at the parties of rich people, then being permitted to bring home the leftover food and some wood for their homes.

The Violins of Hope program was first presented locally at the Temple Shalom Tuesday night. There were three events on Wednesday, happening at West Liberty University in the morning, Wheeling Park High School in the afternoon, and the Ohio County Public Library in the evening.