Max Beker and Fania Durmashkin were accomplished musicians in pre-World War II Vilna. When the Holocaust destroyed their nurturing, loving families and came close to destroying them as well, music was their passport to survival and transcendence. They shared their life-affirming music with the inmates of the Vilna ghetto, concentration, labor and Nazi POW camps, the St. Ottilien DP Camp and, finally, with the new family they created in America.

Published in conjunction with the documentary film, "Creating Harmony: The Displaced Persons' Orchestra at St. Ottilien" by Etoile International Productions