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USAAF pilot, Clair Cline used scavenged wood—bed slats, table legs and aid cartons—to bring life to a model of the plane in which he was shot down, a B-24, as well as a violin. For both the model and violin, Clair worked with makeshift tools like broken glass and table knives, using glue scraped from the bottom of German mess hall tables for adhesive. It took Cline four months to finish his masterpiece, but he completed the violin in time for a concert in his barracks on Christmas Eve 1944…

Following the liberation of Stalag Luft I and the war’s end, the violin was part of an exhibition of POW life that traveled the country from October 1945 to September 1946. It was viewed by over four million Americans. In many of the venues, it was played by popular violinists.