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The black oil menorah was created 83 years ago by Uri Lipman, a Jewish sailor serving in the British Royal Navy, using a bakelite battery salvaged from a German submarine his crew sank during naval operations in the Aegean Sea.
By Shula Rosen
A menorah fashioned from the remains of a Nazi submarine has gone on display this week at the Chaim Herzog Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II in Latrun, telling a story of Jewish defiance and continuity forged in the midst of battle, Ynet reported.
The black oil menorah was created 83 years ago by Uri Lipman, a Jewish sailor serving in the British Royal Navy, using a bakelite battery salvaged from a German submarine his crew sank during naval operations in the Aegean Sea.
Once part of the Nazi war machine, the fragment was transformed by Lipman into a ritual object associated with light and perseverance.
Lipman was born in Germany in 1922 to Jewish parents who left the country as the Nazi threat intensified.
In 1933, the family immigrated to what was then British Mandate Palestine, settling in Haifa. When World War II erupted, Lipman and his brother answered their father’s call to join the Allied fight against Nazi Germany.
Serving as an engine officer aboard a torpedo boat operating out of Greece, Lipman was the only Jew among a crew of 15.
He took part in naval engagements across the Mediterranean and in the Allied invasion of Italy. After his unit destroyed the German submarine, Lipman retrieved part of its battery and later reshaped it into a menorah, refusing to let the object remain merely a trophy of war.
Following the war, Lipman returned to Israel and continued his military service, this time in the Israel Defense Forces. He fought in Israel’s War of Independence as an ordnance officer and later advanced to the rank of major in the navy. The menorah accompanied him throughout his life and remained in the family home for decades.
The Jewish Soldier Museum documents the service of some 1.5 million Jews who fought against Nazi Germany on multiple fronts, placing Lipman’s personal story within a global narrative of Jewish resistance and contribution during World War II.
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