Objects

From the oval base of the candlestick, with an ornament on the edge, stems a shaft splitting into two arched branches. Slanting upwards, the branches converge to connect at the centre of the candlestick. Each of the branches has four sockets on low shafts of different heights: their height decreases towards the centre so that the upper edges of all the sockets are aligned, in spite of the oblique branch.

Before World War II, the Hanukkah lamp belonged to the Szpicbaum family living in Łódź. In 1940, the family moved to Pińczów to avoid being imprisoned in the Łódź ghetto. In November 1942, during the deportation action, they were sheltered by the Kuczkowski family. After a few days, the Szpicbaum sons decided to join partisan units, and the parents decided to change the hiding place, asking the Kuczkowski family for shelter for their disabled daughter. In gratitude, they offered a prayer book with fifty dollars inside and a Hanukkah lamp, which is now in the museum's collection. The further fate of the Szpicbaum family is unknown, with the exception of their daughter, who we know did not survive the war. After the war, an unknown man came to the Kuczkowski family to collect the prayer book with the hidden money.

The candlestick is a donation from Wojciech Kuczkowski.

NR