Hanukkah Lamp in Memory of Holocaust Victims – Erna Weill

Hanukkah Lamp in Memory of Holocaust Victims – Erna Weill
Bronze Hanukkah lamp in memory of Holocaust victims, created by the sculptor Erna Weill. USA, [1970s]. Signed (E.W.)
The lamp is triangular and stands on the vertex. The base consists of three triangular parts placed one on top of the other. Triangular oil fonts and a removable "shamash" (triangular). On the front appears an illustration of Hannah and her seven sons – three of the sons are in her protecting arms, two on the right side (one kneeling and the other protecting his head) and two sons on the left side (one is kneeling, his head turns to the sky and his hands are stretched forward as if in prayer).
On the back side of the lamp appears a citation from the book of Maccabees 2, chapter 7 – the words of Hannah's seventh son, the youngest, to Anthiochus before he was slaughtered. On the two upper vertexes are arrows pointing at Hannah and the children.
The artist Erna Weill née Heft, was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1904 and studied sculpture in the University of Frankfurt. Her teacher was Helene von Beckerath who herself was a student of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Following the rise of the Nazi party, in 1936, Weill left with her husband and two children to Switzerland and from there, in 1937, to the USA. Weill stayed in the New York City area, where she worked as a sculptor and art teacher. She also had her own art school. Died in the USA in 1996.
The lamp presented here was given to Dr. Aryeh Nesher (Ratter) in 1976, by Elie Wiesel (see picture; see attached material). During the years following the holocaust Dr. Nesher was active in the central committee of She'erit HaPleita (z.k. der she'erit hapleita) in Munich, director of the "Department for Internal Matters" of the committee and dealt with American assistance institutes. [attached is an issue of the paper "yiddisher bilder", Munich, 1948, where Dr. Nesher is photographed amongst the participants of the third congress of She'erit HaPleita and a group photo of the "Central Committee" in a convention held in Munich in 1946].
Height: 25 cm, width: 43.5 cm. Good condition.