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Orchestra of Exiles

is the suspenseful chronicle of how one man helped save Europe's premier Jewish musicians from obliteration by the Nazis during World War II. In three years, Bronislaw Huberman transformed from a world renowned violinist to a humanitarian racing against time. With commentary by Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell and others. Orchestra of Exiles premieres Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 10 p.m. on PBS.
The full film is available for online viewing from April 15 to May 14, 2013.

Bronislaw Huberman, 20th-Century Violinist

Bronislaw Huberman, Star Violinist and Humanitarian

Arturo Toscanini, Conductor and Anti-Fascist

Arturo Toscanini, Anti-Fascist and Orchestra Ally

Origins of Palestine Symphony Orchestra members

Saving the Lives of Musicians Across Europe

Signed Program from First Palestine Symphony Orchestra Concert

The Palestine Symphony Orchestra's First Concert

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"[Huberman] stepped out in front with all of his stardom and fame…to show that the threat of Nazism would not destroy the cultural achievement of the Jewish people." —

Leon Botstein, president, Bard College

"One has to build a fist against anti-Semitism—a first class orchestra will be this fist." —

Bronislaw Huberman, Palestine Symphony Orchestra founder

"The seeds of culture that Huberman planted here, that he brought from Central Europe, we are reaping its rewards today." —

Zubin Mehta, music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

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Discussion & Comments
"I have a further story about another theft of this famous violin."—Leon Weintraub, Stockholm, Sweden
April 16, 2013
Leon Weintraub, originally from Lodz, Poland, shares a Bronislaw Huberman story from a book published in Warsaw in 1988. It recounts how a king of the underworld in Lodz, "Blind Maks," came to Huberman's aid when his Stradivarius violin disappeared there. (Click here to read more in Comments section of "The Stolen Stradivarius.")