President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier celebrated Hannukah in Bellevue Palace on Monday with Yehuda Mansbach, grandson of Holocaust survivors Arthur and Rosi Posner, who took an iconic photo which came to symbolise Jewish defiance of the Nazis.

Rosi took the picture of a Hannukah candle on a window sill in Kiel, 1931, with a swastika flag hanging from the local NSDAP headquarters in the background. Arthur was the last rabbi of the city, prior to the Holocaust.

They left Germany for Palestine in 1934, where they became known by their Hebrew names, Akiva and Rahel. The very same Hannukah candle was lit by the president and his guest, during a ceremony in which Mansbach was reduced to tears.

“The light of these candles will shine outside and bear witness to the miracle of Hanukkah, for all to see. I am deeply grateful and humbled, and also happy that we can celebrate this moment together here and now,” said Steinmeier.

“It could have never happened without the faith, strength and confident outlook of the Jewish community. It is the same confident outlook that your grandmother, the Rebbetzin Rahel Posner, had in Kiel back in 1931 when she bravely continued placing the family’s Hanukkah in the window and took a picture of it,” he added.