Praha blues, Star of David

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Janet Lieberman writes:

  >I'm afraid that these were in plastic boxes. The shop's stock
  >seemed very new. Harps are somewhat big in Prague. I heard
  >several street musicians playing the blues, with guitar and
  >harmonica. I'm curious, though. Can someone tell me what is the
  >story behind the Star of David on the medallion??

Oh, well. Glad to hear Prague is a hotbed of harpin'. Who knows
what they'll come up with?

As to the Star of David, it disappeared at the onset of World War
II, for obvious reasons. The Nazis turned the Hohner factory to
munitions production, although there was also some manufacturing
of accordions (the Nazi-deemed "people's instrument" - thank
heavens they didn't settle that infamy on the harmonica, although
they did produce harmonicas with swastikas on them.)

As to how the Star of David got there in the first place, I don't
know. The most obvious possibility is some connection with
Judaism. However, those connected with Hohner whom I've asked
claim that the Hohner family were (are) not Jewish. (They might
have been assimilated, or crypto-jews, although in such cases,
the Star would have been a counterproductive form of advertising
these facts).

Perhaps the Star had some other specific significance (or maybe
it was for for good luck, or just a nice symmetrical design to
put in the center). While it appeared with various award
medallions, the circle which contained the star made no mention
of an award. Rather, it contained, if memory serves, some
coin-like abbreviation of the Hohner factory name and location
(Sorry to be so vague; I don't have immediate access to any
prewar instruments, although I've seen a couple. Annie Cohen in
Boston showed me hers, a D harp given to her by, I think, Snooky
Pryor - it had a number of subtle differences in design, the most
striking being the convex shape of the coverplates (instead of
the French curve shape presently used for the 1896 and the
finger-indent squashed shape used for the 1897) which was very
beautiful in a sort of 1920-s style futuristic way.

By the way, the Star also appears on the prewar chromatic models
260 and 270.

I'll try to find out more about the subject. It's always
intrigued me, and I've never heard a definite answer.

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx