The Significance of a 1938 Passover Order Form

An order form for Passover 1938.

In 1938, a simple Passover order form from the Hermann Rieder store in Mannheim became a silent witness to a world on the brink. Just months later, Kristallnacht would shatter Jewish life across Germany: synagogues burned, shops looted, and countless lives destroyed.

Behind that modest piece of paper was Cecile (Cilli) Daube (née Cohn, 1893–1986). She ran the business and was married to David, who died in an asylum in 1940 — likely at Nazi hands. Together with her daughter Eva, Cecile escaped through the Gurs camp in southern France and reached the United States in 1941. In America, she rebuilt her life with her second husband, Henry Zatzkis, and raised a family. Her grandchild, Lanny Zatzkis, recalls her story in his bestseller My Life Journey.

The destroyed Bamberger & Hertz department store on 10 November 1938, in Leipzig. Credits: Jewish Museum Berlin.

The Hermann Rieder store had been a cornerstone of Mannheim’s Jewish community. Proudly operating under rabbinical supervision, it provided kosher products — sugar, tea, chocolate, matzos, wine, even kosher soap — for families striving to maintain tradition while the Nazi regime steadily eroded their rights and freedoms.

This order form is therefore much more than a shopping list. It is a testament to Jewish life just before it was threatened with annihilation. While Cilli Daube survived the war, her store did not. Yet as long as this paper exists, the memory of a vanished world endures — a fragile but powerful link to history, tradition, and resilience.

Explore our collection of rare pre-war German-Jewish business flyers, each a testament to lives lived, businesses run, and traditions upheld in the shadow of catastrophe.

Destroyed synagogue in Wilhelmshaven, 10 November 1938. Credits: Jewish Museum Berlin.