A Postcard from the Jewish orphanage in Frankfurt am Main
"This is how it is
When we light the Hanukkah candles in the orphanage.
Will it remain so?"
These words cry out from the postcard that was sent to Jews around the world in 1937 from the Jewish orphanage in Frankfurt am Main, as part of a fundraising campaign.
The photograph on the front of the postcard shows the children of the orphanage lighting Hanukkah candles. The adult standing on the left is Isidor Marx, director of the orphanage.
Max Zelman was one of the children in the orphanage. In 1931, three-year-old Max and his four-year-old sister Hella were sent to the orphanage following their mother’s death.
In 1939 Max, Hella and other children from the orphanage were sent to France, where they were hidden by the OSE rescue network. In 1944 they were smuggled to Spain via the Pyrenees, and from there they immigrated to Eretz Israel with the Youth Aliyah program.
Max later changed his name to Mordechai Yaron. He donated the postcard to Yad Vashem as part of the Gathering the Fragments campaign.