Shoah survivors: Help kindle our hopes this Chanukah - The Jewish Chronicle

“When I was a young girl, we held each other’s hands and sang Chanukah songs around the table. One day, the chanukiah and candles were put in a box in the backroom and not touched.”

This is Shoah survivor Theresa Levinson’s memory of how her family’s celebration of Chanukah in pre-war Germany was brought to an abrupt halt by the threat of Nazi persecution.

Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors Centre at the Michael Sobell Centre in Golders Green is one of the services reliant on extra funding from the organisation’s Chanukah appeal, with energy use over the last year costing Jewish Care an additional £1 million across it’s services.

Mrs Levinson still remembers her father sternly instructing her one day not to tell others that they were Jewish.

The family fled from Germany in 1938 and Mrs Levinson, 96, who lives in Surrey, recalled how their Chanukah celebrations were able to resume on their journey to safety.

Frankfurt Germany 1936 Lighting Hanukkah candles in a synagogue Yad Vashem Photo Archives

Chanukah candles being kindled in Frankfurt in 1936

“Shortly after, we were on a train to England,” she said. “I only found out later we had left only a few days before Kristallnacht.

“On the journey to England, I once again saw that box of our Jewish belongings. I remember my mother lighting the chanukiah on the train as another family and my own were huddled around it. I love candles, they fill me with hope and calm.

“They really do light up a room. I light one when I am feeling sad, and it always reminds me to be happy.”

Mrs Levinson was among former refugees and survivors — most of whom make daily use of the Jewish Care Holocasut Survivors Centre — who this week shared with the JC their childhood memories of Chanukah, as a preservation of tradition and the Jewish spirit.

Asked whether she was aware of Chanukah in Auschwitz, Rachel Levy, 92, said: “I knew nothing about dates, any kind of normal life events or Yiddishkeit during my time there.”

Candle lighting on the seventh night of Hanukkah in Holland in 1922

Mrs Levy grew up in the small village of Bhutz in the Carpathian Mountains in a very religious family.

“When I was a young girl the first thing my father did [for Chanukah] was choose some potatoes — big potatoes — and he would dig out the middle of them and pour the oil inside and put a wick in. Then we would light it and sing. And every night he did this.

“The fact that we didn’t have a chanukiah didn’t stop us. Every night we added another potato. Then we played dreidel and were given Chanukah gelt. ”

Mrs Levy was 14 in 1944 when she was forced to go on the long march to Auschwitz, and later to Bergen-Belsen. In England, her celebration of Chanukah was renewed. She said:

“When I was at home in my married life with children, again we used to light candles every night on Chanukah. Now, I light the candles by myself, and I sing the first verse every night.”

In the camps, said Chaim (Harry) Olmer, 95, tradition was put on hold. “We didn’t know it was Chanukah any more. The last time my family celebrated Chanukah together was in 1941.”

Born in Poland, he survived forced labour and five concentration camps. “Growing up at home before the war, we made latkes on Chanukah.

"My mother used to peel and grate the potatoes and put them in the oven to bake thin, then cut them into sections and we ate them whilst they were hot.”

Only after the war was Mr Olmer, then in Glasgow, able to celebrate Chanukah again with the Jewish community. Now, with eight grandchildren who live in Israel and London, he and his family light Chanukah candles together and eat hot latkes once again.

Sylva Herzberg, 91, fled to England in 1940 from Belgium on a coal boat that was almost turned away by authorities in Southampton. But the captain stood up for the Jews on board, saying he “would not return them to the fire which they had escaped”.

Berlin

Candle lighting in Berlin in the 1930s

Mrs Herzberg recalled: “When we arrived in England as refugees we didn’t get presents for Chanukah as we had no money. But we always, always, lit the candles every night. And always celebrated with a song.

Once in Mitcham in Surrey, Chanukah was “very joyous”, she said.

“Once I was married in 1958, we went to live in Hendon where we had my son and daughter.

"On Chanukah we gave presents every night to the children when we lit the candles. I’d make latkes with sugar myself, which is what my mum did before me.

"Now I light my candles by myself and sing the first verse of Maoz Tzur. It’s part of what I am: I am Jewish.”

Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors Centre relies on the generosity of the wider community for support. Jewish Care has launched its Chanukah appeal to meet rising costs. Electricity charges alone have increased by 125 per cent.

To support Jewish Care’s Chanukah appeal, please visit: jewishcare.org/donate/make-a-donation-chanukah

Topics:

Chanukah

Holocaust