Hanukkah celebration with grandchildren of a Jewish family who fled
Created: 12/19/2022, 5:30 p.m
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife with Yehuda Mansbach (r), grandson of Rabbi Arthur Posner.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Nine decades after the Posner family of rabbis fled from Kiel from the National Socialists, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier celebrated the Hanukkah Festival of Lights with his descendants.
He and his wife Elke Büdenbender and their grandson Yehuda Mansbach lit two candles on the family's Hanukkah candlestick, which has become internationally known through a photo.
Berlin - "It is an honor for our country that you, as descendants of Holocaust survivors, have taken the trouble and - as I know - also the pain, to come to Germany for the first time after the Shoah, said Steinmeier.
"We cannot be thankful enough for such openness, for such gestures."
Rahel Posner photographed the Hanukkah candlestick on a windowsill in her apartment in Kiel in 1931.
Outside you can see the hoisted swastika flag on the building in which the district leadership of the NSDAP was housed.
When fleeing to Palestine in 1933, the family took their candlestick with them.
It is now on permanent loan to the Museum of Contemporary History of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
The photo is also on display there.
The candlestick is returned to the family each year for the annual Hanukkah celebration.
Steinmeier called it a miracle that after the Shoah, a crime against humanity, Jewish life was flourishing again in Germany.
"We are experiencing the wonderful gift of reconciliation." The photo shows the imminent danger, the growing hatred of Jews.
But it also contains a signal of resilience and hope.
Today, anti-Semitism is growing again, anti-Jewish conspiracy myths have spread to mainstream society, and Jews are being insulted and attacked, said Steinmeier.
"That's why we all, each and every one of us, have to take a stand against all forms of anti-Semitism.
Nobody is allowed to look the other way." The state must also be vigilant - "and relentless in the prosecution of criminal offenses".
In addition, remembering the Holocaust should never fade, stressed Steinmeier.
dpa
