Tsiyon [Zion] shaped stone Shabbat candleholder and base carved in a Cyprus detention camp

Tsiyon [Zion] shaped stone Shabbat candleholder and base carved in a Cyprus detention camp 

Tsiyon [Zion] shaped stone Shabbat candleholder and base carved in a Cyprus detention camp 

a: Height: 5.750 inches (14.605 cm) | Width: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm) | Depth: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) b: Height: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Width: 6.000 inches (15.24 cm) | Depth: 5.380 inches (13.665 cm) 

Shabbat candleholder crafted by Maurice Grauer while at a British detention camp in Cyprus from 1947 to 1948. It was carved from a floor tile using a sardine can as a carving tool. Grauer and his wife, Natalia, were on the ship, Ben Hecht, en route to Palestine when it was stopped by the British authorities. All the passengers, many of them, like the Grauers, Holocaust survivors, were detained in Cyprus. Palestine was under British control and the immigration policy was very restrictive. The Grauer's first child, Sophie, was born in the camp in 1948. Early that year, the British began to withdraw their military forces from Palestine. On May 11, 1948, the state of Israel was established. The Grauers and the other detainees were welcomed into the Jewish homeland. Grauer was 19-years-old when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. He fled Krakow for Soviet territory and was jailed in Siberia until the Germans declared war on the Soviets. Polish prisoners were set free and Grauer joined the Polish Army for the duration of the war, and stayed enlisted for another year and a half. He then made his way to the Eggenfelden displaced persons camp where he met his wife.