Klaus Dietrich (K. Donald) Hopf

Emigrated from Germany to UK as refugee, then to the U.S., ultimately settling in Chicago.

"Don was a gifted violinist who played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . He set up business in Chicago as a furrier but a couple of robberies caused him to have a breakdown which probably contributed to his early death." - Michael Hopf, Donald's nephew.

See letter (a document under the Media tab) from Albert Einstein to Donald Hopf (aka Klaus Dietrich Hopf ) offering assistance in the sale of a violin, by offering to write a letter on his behalf to musicologist Alfred Einstein.

Owned a 1771 Guadagnini violin. https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/property/?ID=42606

Passage concerning Donald Hopf from Dissertation "Creating 'New Americans': WWII-Era European Refugees' Formation of American Identities" http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/history/Luick-Thrams-Michae...:

"Typical of German Jews in the degree to which they felt culturally assimilated, the Rosenzweigs' attitudes suggest why so many German Jews initially found the idea of Nazi political accession implausible and-once the Nazis took power-why many reacted non-chalantly so long to the threat posed by the Hitler regime. More incredible-yet not unheard of-was the degree to which some Jews who fled the Third Reich continued to believe in Germany or the superiority of "German-ness" despite having been rejected by the dominant culture in the land of their birth. Twenty-one-year-old Donald Hopf-for one- exhibited such naiveté. A concert violinist and a Jew whose father had lost a mathematics professorship at Aachen Universität, at least initially he failed to the see through Nazi facades of legitimacy or sense what Hitler's reign would mean for him and millions of other so-called "non-Aryans" in the Third Reich. Interviewed by Iowa's leading newspaper while at Scattergood Hostel, Hopf offered a most unsophisticated political perspective, excerpts of which include:

No, I do not hate Hitler... I think Hitler is all right for Germany, but he should not be permitted to go beyond his lines. It probably is the WISH of refugees from Germany that the German people do not agree with Hitler. I believe, however, that at least 70 per cent, young and old, are patriotic and support him. I do not think they favor war, but they support him. I have no personal feeling against Hitler or his government. And I hope that, if someone does shoot him, it will not be a Jew. Jews should stay out of it.