Finding Motele

This is the story of a sixth-grade social studies project that took on a life of its own and captivated a family for more than a year. As an entry for the National History Day competition, the story of the young Jewish partisan named Motele from the Violins of Hope exhibition that we had seen at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage perfectly exemplified that year's theme of Taking a Stand in History. We had seen his actual violin at the exhibition, on special loan from the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem. Motele, who was just 12 years old, was recruited to play violin in a German officers' club. Recognizing it as an opportunity to avenge his family's murder by the Nazis, he subsequently smuggled explosives in his violin case and blew up the club. The topic was perfect for our son. He was about the same age as Motele and he too played the violin. As he researched the story and its historical context and crafted a living history performance that told the story in the guise of Motele himself, Motele's story touched us in ways we could not have anticipated. Over the course of the ensuing year Motele became a part of our family and inspired us to go in search of him and the world in which he lived and died, to find evidence of him in his own time and space. That search took us quite literally to the other side of the globe, as we connected with researchers, historians, and archives in Australia, Europe, Israel, and beyond, as well as with many researchers and institutions throughout the United States. It has truly been an odyssey worth sharing. This is our story of finding Motele.