Hanukkah at the Window

A Hanukkah menorah stood on the rabbi’s windowsill. Across the street, a swastika flag hung from the Nazi Party building. In Kiel in December 1931, the two symbols faced one another more than a year before Hitler came to power. Rachel Posner, wife of Rabbi Akiva Baruch Posner, the head of the local Jewish community, photographed the menorah in her window. The flag entered the frame.

1. Hanukkah at the window

Provenance and sources for frame 1

Rachel Posner took this photograph in Kiel in December 1931. The file is a copy from Wikimedia Commons, not the Posner family’s digital master. Yad Vashem credits the Posner Family Estate / Shulamit Mansbach. Commons notes public-domain status in Israel; that does not establish unrestricted use in every country. Displayed file: 1050 × 1400 pixels. The source record discusses public-domain status; check which jurisdiction it covers. Full image record in Russian.

commons.wikimedia.orgwwv.yadvashem.orgdeutschlandfunkkultur.dewwv.yadvashem.orgView image file

On the back of the print, Rachel gave a voice to both flag and candles. She wrote the lines in German; the word Juda stands for the Jewish people. Below are her original words, Yad Vashem’s Hebrew translation and a WITNESS translation into English.

German original

„Juda verrecke“
die Fahne spricht —
„Juda lebt ewig“
erwidert das Licht.

Hebrew · Yad Vashem translation

״יהודה התפגרי״
כך אומר הדגל
״יהודה תחיה לעד״
כך עונה האור.

English · WITNESS translation

“Death to the Jews,”
says the flag.
“The Jewish people live forever,”
replies the light.

The Posners left Germany in 1933, taking both the menorah and the photograph with them. In 1934, the family arrived in Mandatory Palestine.

The menorah was later placed on long-term loan with Yad Vashem. According to the museum and the Posners’ descendants, the menorah is returned to the family each Hanukkah so they can light its candles again.