Auction 69 - Part I -Rare and Important Items
Wooden Hanukkah Lamp Made by a Jewish Prisoner at an Internment Camp on the Isle of Man – April 1941 – With a Handwritten Signed Inscription
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,000 - $4,000
Sold for: $1,250
Including buyer's premium
Wooden Hanukkah lamp made by a prisoner at the Onchan internment camp on the Isle of Man. With a plaque inscribed by hand on verso. April 1941.
The Onchan internment camp was one of the eleven camps established by the British on the Isle of Man during World War II. The camps were established because the British feared that enemy aliens in England – citizens of Germany, Austria and Italy, will remain loyal to their homelands and when the hour of reckoning comes they will turn their back on their new country. Although most of those "enemy aliens" were Jews who escaped the Nazis during the 1930s, the British decided to imprison them indiscriminately and in 1940, started deporting them to the internment camps on the Isle of Man.
The high percentage of intellectuals among the exiles led to a rapid growth of cultural life in the camps on the isle, each of which developed its individual character. In two of the camps, Onchan and Hutchinson, the number of artists was especially high. Although the artists of the Onchan camp were less known, they were politically active (among them were Heinz Edgar Kiewe, Frederick Henri Kay Henrion and Jack Bilbo), arranged exhibitions and even established an art school that gave classes in painting, sculpting, typography and fashion design.
This Hanukkah lamp was made by one of the prisoners at the Onchan camp. The lamp is modern in style and may have been made by a student of the camp's art school. On a wooden plaque on verso, a handwritten English inscription reads: "Just as a little token of friendship (for lack of other expressions), almost your son, Amram Jacobson. Onchan Internment Camp, April 1941".
Maximum height: approx. 13 cm. Maximum width: approx. 29 cm. Good condition. Blemishes and scratches to the wood. Scratches and some rust to the oil fonts.
The Onchan internment camp was one of the eleven camps established by the British on the Isle of Man during World War II. The camps were established because the British feared that enemy aliens in England – citizens of Germany, Austria and Italy, will remain loyal to their homelands and when the hour of reckoning comes they will turn their back on their new country. Although most of those "enemy aliens" were Jews who escaped the Nazis during the 1930s, the British decided to imprison them indiscriminately and in 1940, started deporting them to the internment camps on the Isle of Man.
The high percentage of intellectuals among the exiles led to a rapid growth of cultural life in the camps on the isle, each of which developed its individual character. In two of the camps, Onchan and Hutchinson, the number of artists was especially high. Although the artists of the Onchan camp were less known, they were politically active (among them were Heinz Edgar Kiewe, Frederick Henri Kay Henrion and Jack Bilbo), arranged exhibitions and even established an art school that gave classes in painting, sculpting, typography and fashion design.
This Hanukkah lamp was made by one of the prisoners at the Onchan camp. The lamp is modern in style and may have been made by a student of the camp's art school. On a wooden plaque on verso, a handwritten English inscription reads: "Just as a little token of friendship (for lack of other expressions), almost your son, Amram Jacobson. Onchan Internment Camp, April 1941".
Maximum height: approx. 13 cm. Maximum width: approx. 29 cm. Good condition. Blemishes and scratches to the wood. Scratches and some rust to the oil fonts.
Holocaust and Sheerit Hapletah
Holocaust and Sheerit Hapletah