- Object Name:
- Hanukkah Lamp
- Artist/Maker:
- Arnold Zadikow
- Bio:
- German, 1884-1943
- Artist/Maker:
- Leopold Hecht
- Bio:
- Czech, 1912-1994
- Place Made:
- Theresienstadt (Terezín), Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic)
- Date:
- 1942
- Medium:
- Wood: carved
- Dimensions:
- 20 9/16 × 22 × 10 in. (52.2 × 55.9 × 25.4 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Purchase: The Abraham and Mildred Goldstein Memorial Fund
- Accession Number:
- 2018-78
Not On View
This Hanukkah lamp with the Hebrew inscription “Who is like you, O Lord, among the celestials?” (Exodus 15:11) is a rare example of Jewish ceremonial art created during the Holocaust. The sculptor and architect Arnold Zadikow was deported to the camp-ghetto Theresienstadt in May 1942 and assigned to work in the Lautsch Workshop, which made decorative arts for the Nazis. Zadikow was aided by a young woodcarver interned in the camp, Leopold Hecht, who stole the wood for the lamp from the Germans. The lamp was made for the boys’ residence, to enable the children to celebrate Hanukkah and to teach them about Judaism, since Jewish instruction was forbidden. It was hidden all year and taken out only during the holiday. Zadikow died at Theresienstadt, but his daughter Marianne and wife, Hilda, also an artist, survived. The lamp was found in the camp after the war.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.