Wilfred Owen Festival – The Fiddle

A talk by Author Natalie Cumming
A true story, tracing a precious violin across landscapes devastated by war and terror, to safety and restoration in 21st century Britain.
Abraham and his family flee the Bolsheviks, from St. Petersburg to Odessa and safety in the UK. Abraham’s skill on the violin earns them food and lodgings, as they struggle through the freezing Russian winter. The violin passes to Rosa, who is Abraham’s daughter, violinist with a famous German orchestra. Arrested by the Nazis on Kristellnacht 1938 she is sent to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and then to Auschwitz, where her musical talent sees her forced to join the Women’s Orchestra and saves her life. She spends the last 5 months of the war in Belsen, before testifying at the Nuremberg Trials, exposing the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Rosa’s brother Israel, inherits the violin. A celebrated musician, he joins ENSA during the war, entertaining the troops. Post war, he investigates the Nazis trying to escape trial. He forms several popular bands, well-known throughout the '60s & '70s. Finally, the violin comes to his daughter Natalie, who has written her family’s extraordinary story, lest the world should ever forget global events, against which the journey of this beautiful instrument is told. In 2018 the violin was restored on the TV's Repair Shop programme.
For tickets sales (£3.00) or information go to www.wilfredowenfestival.co.uk
or visit Oswestry TIC, Indoor Market, Bailey Head, Oswestry
Wednesday, Friday, & Saturday 10am - 3pm