Photo: Marisa Danson
![A photograph taken in 1931 by Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva Posner, of their candle-lit Hanukkah menorah against the backdrop of the Nazi flags flying from the building across from their home in Kiel Germany](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_1block/public/02_220.jpg?itok=5MW7W12Q)
![A photograph taken in 1931 by Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva Posner, of their candle-lit Hanukkah menorah against the backdrop of the Nazi flags flying from the building across from their home in Kiel Germany](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/02_220.jpg?itok=6JOT8CIS)
![Hanukkah menorah belonging to the Posner family from Kiel](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_1block/public/hanukkah-posner.jpg?itok=Wzyt399z)
The Posner family’s Hanukkah menorah. Rachel Posner photographed the menorah as it stood on the family’s window ledge in Kiel, Germany against the backdrop of the Nazi flags flying from the building across from their home.
Foto © Noam Preisman
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
![Hanukkah menorah belonging to the Posner family from Kiel](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/hanukkah-posner.jpg?itok=ZJvEhk5b)
![The Posner family Hanukkah menorah displayed in the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem beside the photograph that was taken in the Posner family home in Kiel on their last Hanukkah in Germany, 1931](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_1block/public/06_82.jpg?itok=AwlhBJxN)
![The Posner family Hanukkah menorah displayed in the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem beside the photograph that was taken in the Posner family home in Kiel on their last Hanukkah in Germany, 1931](https://www.yadvashem.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/06_82.jpg?itok=Bv15ct7O)
Following tradition, each year the Mansbach family comes to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum to bring home their menorah to use during the festival of Hanukkah. The menorah was donated to Yad Vashem by the Mansbach family and is on permanent display in the Holocaust History Museum. Today, Yehuda Mansbach, the grandson of Rachel Posner, came to Yad Vashem to take the menorah home where he will light the candles in celebration of Hanukkah. This year, the Hanukkah menorah will also be used in a Hanukkah ceremony for the soldiers in the IDF battalion of Mansbach's son.
Rabbi Dr. Akiva Posner, Doctor of Philosophy from Halle-Wittenberg University, served from 1924-1933 as the last Rabbi of the community of Kiel, Germany. After Rabbi Posner publicized a protest letter in the local press expressing indignation at the posters that had appeared in the city: "Entrance to Jews Forbidden," he was summoned by the chairman of the local branch of the Nazi party to participate in a public debate. The event took place under heavy police guard and was reported by the local press. When the tension and violence in the city intensified, the Rabbi responded to the pleas of his community to flee with his wife Rachel and their three children and make their way to Eretz Israel. Before their departure, Rabbi Posner was able to convince many of his congregants to leave and many in fact managed to leave for Eretz Israel or the United States. The Posner family left Germany in 1933 and arrived in Eretz Israel in 1934. Some eighty years later, Akiva and Rachel Posner's descendants continue to light the Hanukkah candles using the same menorah that was brought to Israel from Kiel.
Both the Hanukkah menorah and the photograph are on display at Yad Vashem.