A Violin Once Owned by Goebbels Keeps Its Secrets

[Gerald]

The Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, presenting a violin, said to be a Stradivarius, to Nejiko Suwa in 1943.

JOSEPH GOEBBELS, in a pinstripe suit, his hair slicked back, gave a simple but philosophical speech about the importance of music. Then, smiling, he handed over the violin to a young woman. The passing was captured on film: the violin’s elegant outline, the figure on its flamed-maple back, the wear pattern of its varnish.

Japan’s ambassador to Germany, Hiroshi Oshima, was on hand to witness the transfer. Nejiko Suwa, 23, played her new gift on the spot.

The next day Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, wrote in his diary: “I am offering the Japanese violinist Suwa a Stradivarius violin. Oshima, who attends the reception of this young girl who makes an extremely likable impression, is delighted about this gift.”

Ms. Suwa responded with gratitude. “I will continue to work hard not to disgrace this masterpiece,” she told the Japanese press.

The setting was Berlin; the gift an 18th-century instrument said to be from the hands of a master luthier whose works mark the apex of three centuries of violin making. The ceremony a chance to cement an alliance and to thank the violinist for playing for Germans wounded in World War II.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/ar...gift.html?_r=0


Note: September 21, 2012