The experiences of Jewish children during the Holocaust are being told through their toys and games in a poignant new online exhibition.
Alongside an estimated six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945, including 1.5 million children, many hundreds of thousands were displaced or lived in ghettos, where young people treasured their dolls, cuddly toys and other playthings.
Often a much-loved doll was one of the only reminders of home in a refugee camp in a foreign country, while a handmade toy was a precious memento of a parent who had been taken to a concentration camp, never to be seen again.
Some of these items, as well as pictures of the children they belonged to, have recently been documented online by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem.
The heartrending images show things including a series of dolls, homemade chess sets and boards, illustrated storybooks and a box full of puzzle pieces.
An incredible hand-crafted Monopoly board depicting the Theresienstadt ghetto controlled by the Nazis in occupied Czechoslovakia – in which around 144,000 Jews were held – is also seen.
And one doll in the collection is dressed in the pyjamas survivor Lore Stern wore during Kristallnacht – the night in which Nazi paramilitary forces and some German civilians destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues in Germany in 1938.
Among the victims of the Holocaust were approximately one and a half million children. Just like children today, many of them had dolls, cuddly toys and other playthings. Some of these items, as well as pictures of the children they belonged to, have recently been documented online by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. This doll was owned by Lore Stern, who was able to flee Germany in 1941.
Lore’s father Markus Stern was interned for six weeks in the Buchenwald concentration camp but because he had a US visa, he was released on condition he leave Germany immediately. During his internment, Lore, who was then a very young child, hid with her mother at a neighbour’s house during Kristallnacht – the night in which the vandalization of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues occurred in 1938. Once Markus was in the US, he was able to get Lore and her mother visas and they fled to the US after travelling to Portugal in August 1941. Lore’s took her doll, which she received as a birthday gift, with her on the voyage to the US and dressed it in the pyjamas she wore on Kristallnacht. She was then reunited with her father in New York. Lore immigrated to Israel in 1991 and in 2018 donated her doll to Yad Vashem.
This teddy bear belonged to Fred Lessing, a child survivor of the Holocaust. A Christian family hid Fred during the war and the teddy became his closest friend and source of comfort. The bear’s head was once almost bitten off by a dog and so his mother sewed a new one on using fabric from Fred’s jacket.
Fred (pictured third from left in Amsterdam) agreed to lend his teddy to Yad Vashem. He told the museum curators after their request: ‘I spoke with my bear and I explained to him that, for the first time ever we would have to part. The reason was that he had to carry out an important task-he had to travel to Israel to take part in an exhibition with other toys from the period of the Holocaust and there he would tell our story to the children who came to visit the exhibition’
Survivor Stella Knobel lent the above teddy bear which accompanied her throughout the war to Yad Vashem. The bear was a gift from her father Marton, a medical officer in the Polish army. Stella and her family evaded capture after Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 and the teddy, named ‘Mishu’ was one of the few things Stella was able to take with her
Stella (pictured above with her family’s chauffeur in Krakow, Poland, before the war) and her family family fled into Soviet-held territory and ended up being deported to Siberia. They were released in 1941 and made their way to Uzbekistan where her father found employment as a doctor. In 1943, Stella and her mother Anna made their way to Israel and arrived with just a basket, five dollars and Mishu
This chess set was carved by Julius Druckman in the Obdovka Ghetto in Transnistria, which is now recognised as part of Moldova. Julius met and became friends with another boy, Menachem Scharf, and crafted the chess pieces for them to play with. In 1943, representatives from the charity the Red Cross came and collected children with the intention of sending them to places with better living conditions. But there was not enough room on the train for Julius and before Menachem departed he was given the chess set by Julius as a memento of their friendship
The children who were left at the station were offered the chance to go on a boat to Nikolayev port in what is now Ukraine and then to travel on to Switzerland. However, Julius chose to return to Obdovka where he was reunited with his mother. He and his mother immigrated to Israel in 1975. Without knowing what had happened to Julius, Menachem donated the chess set to Yad Vashem. Julius and Menachem were finally reunited when Julius came to the museum in 1997
This doll’s crib was built by Ycek-Josef Horonczyk for his daughter Francine when he was interned at the Beaune-la-Rolande camp. He was later deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. His wife Paula and Francine survived
Francine (pictured) and Paula were saved by Christian neighbors, Paul and Suzanne Gibaud. They were recognised for their heroics in 2008. Paula and Francine immigrated to Israel in 1947 where they were re-united with Paula’s only living relative, her brother Tzvi borucki. Paula then married a second time
This doll, named Lala, was given to survivor Vera Lifschitz when she was in a transit camp in Karachi, which was then in India but is now in Pakistan. Vera and her family had fled from their home in Poland at the outbreak of war.
Vera and her mother ended up in India after spending time in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Tehran in Iran. Vera was given the doll by and Indian soldier. In 1943, Vera and her mother immigrated to Israel and she donated the doll to Yad Vashem for safekeeping. Pictured left: Vera with the doll at the camp in Karachi. Pictured right: Vera as an older woman with the doll
This doll and its accompanying bed belonged to Claudine Schwartz-Rudel. She had to flee from Nazi-occupied Paris to Southern France when she was seven. The doll, named Colette, was given to Claudine by her parents before they left Paris
At the time, Colette (pictured above) could not understand why her parents were so keen on her to look after the doll and not to get it wet. She only later found that Colette doubled up as a safe in which her father hid money and other valuables. They were used as bribes to help the family get to safety. Once they were safe, Claudine had her hair cut, some of which was used to make a wig for Colette. The doll’s original hair had fallen out because of how much it had been handled
This doll was made by Pauline Hirsch Klauber in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Pauline used scrap metal to make toys and ornaments and then trade them for food. The base of the above doll was made from a can of preserved food
This chess set belonged to Leone Goldstein. Thirteen-year-old Chaya Stecolchi became friends with Goldstein in the Mogilev ghetto in occupied Belarus. Leone gave the handcrafted set to Chaya when they were released from the ghetto. An inscription on its base reads ‘In remembrance of the difficult but happy days 24/4/1944’
The Stecolcic Family, circa 1930, right to left: eldest daughter Sara, father David with youngest daughter Misha on his lap, mother Rosa, and daughters Luba, Bluma and Chaya (front). The family were imprisoned in the Czernowitz ghetto in 1941 and then deported to the Mogilev ghetto, where David worked as a carpenter
This chess board was made by Holocaust survivor Herbert Odenheimer, later Ehud Loeb, when he was staying at Chateau Chabbanes – a children’s home in France – during the War. Ehud is the former registrar at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem
The board was part of Yad Vashem’s ‘No Child’s Play’ exhibition and Ehud visited it soon after it opened. He found that the chess board was strangely familiar to him but could not remember why. The board was signed with the name ‘Herbert’ and when Ehud discovered there was only one Herbert at the Chataeu during the war, he remembered that the chess board was his. Pictured: Ehud (then Herbert) with his father in Buehl in south-west Germany
In 1944, Zigmund and Rosina Stern fled from Bratislava in Slovakia with their nine-year-old son Alfred. The family went into hiding in the home of Jan and Maria Matula in rural Slovakia and Zigmund carved the chess pieces to pass the time. The area where they were hiding was liberated in March 1945 and the family returned to Bratislava
Pictured: Alfred with his brother Richard (right). Richard, who was then 12, was sent by his parents to live with his grandparents in Budapest in Hungary during the war. However, Richard and his grandparents were deported to Auschwitz and murdered. In 1949 the Stern family immigrated to Israel
This puzzle was made by Chana (Hendrika) Broer from Vughts, in the Netherlands. She was born in 1934 to parents Jan and Theresia-Bertha, who was Jewish. Jan hid his wife and children in their home during the War and so they survived. Jan then went on to join the Dutch resistance and helped to save other Jews. The family also hid another family, the Stads, in the attic of their home but did not tell Chana. They gave the Stads the puzzle and so Chana spent her time looking for the puzzle, which she had received as a birthday present
This Monopoly game was made as part of the underground activity in the Theresienstadt ghetto in occupied Czechoslovakia. It was drawn by Oswald Poeck, an artist who went on to be deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. The monopoly game was intended to entertain children and also to provide them with information about ghetto life
Significant ghetto sites are stops on the board, including the prison, barracks and kitchen. Pictured: The board is accompanied by the homemade cards used to play the game