Name of Exhibit: Well-Travelled Sterling
Submitted by: Tova Clark
Date of Origin: 1938
Origin of Object: Oppeln, Germany
Description: The sterling menorah and candle holders were especially made for my parents after they got married. Charlotte Wolff (née Hertz) and Ernst Wolff were married on January 23rd, 1938 in the synagogue of Oppeln, Germany (now Opole, Poland). My parents were modern Orthodox. Jewish rituals and traditions were very important to them. My parents were supposed to have given all their valuables up to the Nazis, including their silver. But rather than relinquishing them, they decide to risk it and hide these objects instead.
Voyage to Ottawa: The menorah and candle holders are well travelled. When my parents fled Nazi Germany in 1940 for Japanese-occupied Shanghai, they took the candle holders and menorah with them. In 1949, when we immigrated to Israel, my parents took these objects with them. Once they passed, I inherited these objects from my parents.
My Father Arriving in Israel from Shanghai
My father, Ernest Wolff, is the man wearing the white hat, third from the right holding a Sefer Torah. Israel, March 1949, Immigrants from Shanghai arriving in Israel, holding Torah scrolls. Credited to the Central Zionist Archives. Yad Vashem Online Photo Archive. 5290/20. https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/photos/70588
