The Violin of Auschwitz

I'd picked up The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada at the last library book sale that I attended. I'd posted a photo of the stack of books I'd gotten from the sale on Facebook last week. (That's what prompted me to read Letters For Emily.) One of my Facebook friends say this book in the stack and asked if she could borrow it. I decided I'd read it first to know whether I'd want it back to put in the library at my rental property or if she could pass it along to someone else. It's a very slim volume and I figured I could read it in an afternoon.

This is a story within a story. A violin player hears a Polish woman playing violin, gets to know her and becomes curious about the history of her violin. As they part, she hands him a  story is about the violin which she had only told him had been built by her uncle. The real story is about Daniel, a prisoner at a camp in Auschwitz. When asked his profession, he said he was a carpenter rather than the violin maker he actually was. His true vocation came out when he observed a violinist playing poorly and realized it was a problem with the instrument and not the museum. He couldn't help himself from letting the Germans know that it was the violin and that he could fix it. He was given until the following morning.

Once that violin was repaired, he was asked to make a high quality violin. His life at the camp was then divided in 3. His mornings in the shop, mostly alone, working on the violin. His afternoons in the factory manufacturing military equipment. And the nighttimes in the barracks with his fellow prisoners. He feels his humanity in the barracks when he realizes that he hasn't lost the ability to feel for his fellow bunkmates. I found the real humanity was his working on the violin.

After I finished this slim volume, I did some research and learned that Anglada's story was based on a true story. I read the book in English and I'm wondering if it lost something in translation as the narrative did not flow smoothly. But for the time I needed to invest to read it, I'm very glad I did.