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

Maurycy Grauer (1920-2003) was born in Krakow, Poland. He grew up in the Jewish neighborhood and attended public school. He had six brothers. Maurycy helped his father in his work as a house painter. After the German invasion in September 1939, Maurycy fled Krakow with his cousin and their two children. He was held by the Soviets for two days at the border between the German and the Soviet-occupied sections of Poland, but then was permitted to continue to L’viv. He eventually ended up in Chakalov in the Soviet Union, where he and some friends did business with the black market. Maurycy was arrested by Soviet Army police, jailed for a year and a half, then sent to a Siberian labor camp for a 10-year sentence. He worked painting and laying bricks, and was allowed to sign in and out of camp each day for work. When Germany declared war on the Soviet Union in spring 1941, Polish citizens were set free in order to help fight the Germans. Maurycy returned to Poland and joined the Polish Army in exile, serving in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. After the war, he returned to Poland and was in the Army for another year and a half. Both of his parents and all six brothers perished during the war.

At that point, Maurycy left Poland for the Eggenfelden displaced persons camp in Germany where he met Natalia Rosenwald. She was born on February 16, 1929, in Krakow and had survived Mauthausen and Ravensbrück concentration camps. They married on February 18, 1947. Maurycy discovered that his sisters were in Palestine, and the couple decided to join them. In summer 1947, they embarked on the Aliya Bet ship, Ben Hecht. While en route to Palestine, the ship was stopped by the British Authorities, who controlled the nation at that time. All the passengers were detained at a camp in Cyprus. While there, Natalie gave birth to their first child in 1948. After the establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, the internees were welcomed into the Jewish homeland. Maurycy served in the Israeli Army. In 1950, the couple had their second of four children. In 1952, the family returned to Munich, Germany, because they were dissatisfied with their life in Israel. They applied for visas to the United States, Australia, and Brazil. Australia was the first to grant them permits, so they moved to Sydney in 1955. Eventually, they were able to join Natalia’s sisters and family in the United States. The family immigrated to New Jersey in 1962. Maurycy, who Anglicized his name to Maurice, passed away in 2003, in Florida.