MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Frank Almond remembers the moment a thief took his 300-year-old partner: A $5 million violin. “He got a little closer and closer and saw a couple of flashing lights and ...

Motivated by the contradiction, the professional disassembled the violin, revealing Kempa’s hidden note. It reads: “Trial instrument, made under difficult conditions with no tools and materials.

Kempa's "violin of hope," as it has come to be called, is the only known instrument actually built inside the camp. It is unknown how the violin left Dachau and ultimately made its way to Hungary.

A secret note written by a man who was imprisoned inside a World War II concentration camp has been found inside a violin. Franciszek "Franz" Kempa built the instrument in 1941 while imprisoned by ...

Anno 1941, Franciszek Kempa.”The origins of the violin, built in 1941 by Franciszek “Franz” Kempa while imprisoned by the Nazis at Dachau in southern Germany, remained unnoticed for decades.

Working in the late 17th and early 18th centuries Stradivari had access to a special type of wood that grew between 1645 and 1715 when temperatures stayed on the cool side all year round. During ...

A secret note hidden in Dachau-built ‘Violin of Hope’ tells a tale of survival and craftsmanship By: Justin Spike, The Associated Press Posted: 1:09 AM CDT Monday, Apr. 28, 2025 Last Modified ...