Hanukka Lamp (″Hanukkiya″) from Theresienstadt

Hanukka Lamp from Theresienstadt
Hanukka Coin, 1984/5745

In 1981, a most unusual Hanukka Lamp was presented to the "Yad Vashem" Museum by an anonymous American donor. The distinguishing feature of this Hanukka Lamp was not its external beauty but rather its great historical value. Its craftsman was unknown but it was made from automobile spare parts and scrap-iron from the Theresienstadt Ghetto garage. It had been discovered in Europe after the war and taken to the United States.
Of all the ghettos and concentration camps set up by the Germans, Theresienstadt was different. The Nazis wished to create a sort of model "Jewish City" governed by its inhabitants.
Bohemian and Moravian Jews, who numbered 118,000 before the Holocaust, never suspected that Theresienstadt was going to be a staging point on the way to Poland rather than a survival point, as the Germans had tried to indicate. In spite of inhuman living conditions, the inhabitants of Theresienstadt succeeded in maintaining their human dignity, as well as a flourishing and artistic life. They even presented plays in Czech and in German. Tragically, out of 150,000, about 30,000 of the inhabitants perished in the Ghetto, while about 90,000 were sent to Auschwitz and exterminated in the ovens of the concentration camps.

The Hanukka Lamp from Theresienstadt is a remaining tangible symbol of this heroic chapter in the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Obverse:
The State of Israel Emblem, word "Israel" in Hebrew, English and Arabic and mint year 1984-5745. To the right, the face value filled with vertical strips, resembling the strips of metal used for the Hanukka Lamp - on the Proof Coin, a 2 Sheqalim face value, on the B.U. Coin - 1 sheqel.

Reverse:
Hanukka Lamp from the Theresienstadt Ghetto and the inscription in Hebrew and in English : Hanukka Lamp from Theresienstadt Ghetto 24.11.1941-9.5.1945

Edge:
B.U. Coin - smooth
Proof Coin - milled

Mint Marks:
On the B.U. Coin obverse, a Star of David, on the Proof Coin obverse, the Hebrew letter "mem".

Designer:
Gideon Keich

Mint:
Proof Coin - The Federal Mint, Switzerland.
B.U. Coin - Monnaie de Paris