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The Holocaust Doll
The Olympic Doll that
resides at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Two Schildkroet Dolls
have Ties to The Holocaust and The Olympic Doll
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| Cousin to the Olympic Doll |
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| Box from the cousin to the Olympic Doll |
The history of a celluloid doll in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is told this
month in “Doll Castle News”
May/June 2016, by author Stephanie Strunk Baker. Artist Diana E. Vining has also done a paper
doll tribute featuring the doll and her owner, Inge Auerbacher. Auerbacher gave her doll to the museum in
1992. The Schildkroet Doll Factory, who
made the original doll, recently began creating limited editions of Inge’s
doll, and has since given one to her as a remembrance.
Inge Auerbacher was born in southwest Germany, near the Black
Forest, also known for dolls and woodcarving. In August, 1942, Inge and her family were
departed to Terezin, a NAZI concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Her doll, named Marlene for
Marlene Dietrich [an actress who also had dolls], was a celluloid doll with
blue eyes and molded blonde hair.
Somehow, Auerbacher held onto her doll throughout her
family’s internment. I have read
accounts that puppet shows took place at Terezin, and that children could
be born there. It was not a death
camp, but many, including a friend of Inge’s who had an identical doll to
Auerbacher’s, were deported to Auschwitz and
other death camps.
After the camp was liberated, and Inge traveled, she still
kept Marlene. She learned later that the
brand name for this doll was “Inge”, a rare coincidence indeed. According to
baker, Auerbacher’s grandmother may have bought the doll because it had the
same name as her granddaughter. The Inge
doll was created as a type of mascot for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and is often
called The Olympic Doll.
That Olympics and The Olympic doll are
important to my family, too. My dad was
a world class runner in Greece,
and his coach ran in the famous race wear Jesse Owens beat a top NAZI
athlete. My parents and their families
spent the war in occupied Greece. They survived the Fascists, the NAZI’s, and
later, the Communists during The Greek Civil War.
My mother was an American; she and her family went on a
vacation to Greece
in 1938 that lasted eight years. Her
relatives in Illinois
thought all of them were dead. They
nearly starved, and she nearly escaped being shot herself. She witnessed the round-ups of innocent
people being taken away to be shot, and she heard stories of what was happening
in the concentration camps in Poland,
Czechoslovakia
and elsewhere.
My mother kept her favorite doll, a composition
Shirley look alike, with her till she left for the US.
Then, she gave it to her cousin.
We found a doll like her, but if Cousin ReRe reads this post, we’d like
the doll back if you have her.
As a result, my mom had very little of her possessions when
she came home. She had two, very early 7
inch dolls that she dressed in Greek costumes. My mother used to dance and knew many of the
traditional dances of Greece
and Mexico. Those two dolls are all I really have of her
own childhood dolls.
The story of the Schildkroet
doll does not end with Inge, however.
Diane’s Doll:
About three year’s ago, one of my former literature
professors was having Christmas dinner with my family and with the family of
another of my old profs. They used to
have Christmas dinner at night, in their church hall. My literature prof started telling me about
his sister’s doll, kept carefully in his mother’s closet until his own mother
died. The doll, also a Schildkroet,
could be a sister to Marlene, Inge Auerbacher’s doll. Diane, my prof’s sister, passed away when she
was 5. She never got to play with the
doll, which is dressed in a traditional Swedish outfit, and lies preserved in
her original box. I have pictured her in
this post.
My professor asked me if I would like to see the doll, and
if I would be interested in buying her.
Diane’s doll resided with me for a year; next Christmas, he asked me
again. Meanwhile, I had sent him all
kinds of information about celluloid dolls and Schildkroet. We agreed on a fair price. My doll will become part of Dr. Ellen’s Doll Museum when we
have our brick and mortar structure in place, and the money paid for her was
donated to charity in Diane’s name.
For photos of Inge’s doll, please read Stephanie Stunk
Baker’s excellent article in “Doll Castle News.” My own doll is pictured here.
Even in horrific times, dolls comfort children. Several years ago, “Doll Reader” featured a
story about a doll that belonged to Ann Frank. Another of their articles once
featured toys allegedly made by children
in concentration camps similar to Terezin.
Locally, there was a story in our paper about a little girl in Russia who kept
her small doll with her and who made doll clothes out of scraps. She suffered and nearly starved, but kept her
doll as solace throughout. There are Holocaust documentaries that talk of
little children, doomed to die in the gas chambers, who fashioned toys out of
trash and played games, even when they knew they were going to die.
My own theory is that many of the German doll companies,
which were run by Jewish families, were taken over by the NAZIs. Doll maker Edith Samuel managed to flee and
continued to make dolls in Israel. Dina Vierny,
whom I’ve written about before, managed to keep her fantastic dolls, and helped
people to escape the NAZIS. I would like
more evidence on this theory of what happened to some of the German doll makers,
and I would like to write more about them as a memorial to Inge, to my own
family, and to Ann Frank and the millions of other innocent children who died
in the concentration camps and during the horrors of The Second World War.
Two excellent books about dolls and the Holocaust include
“The Doll with the Yellow Star” and “When
Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.” More
books on the Holocaust comprise the Jeff Leibowitz collection, Western Illinois University.
Categories: Assign to –
Antique Dolls
Dolls 1930s-1950s
Quick information for doll collectors
Books about dolls
Dolls by Type and Material
Links:
The Folk Toy
Assignment: Dolls Teach School:
Teaching with Dolls: http://collectdolls.about.com/od/Calendars-Tutorials-Alphabets-Quick-Studies/fl/Teaching-with-Dolls.htm
Interesting Non
Collectors in Doll Collecting: http://collectdolls.about.com/od/antiquedolls1800s1920s/fl/Interesting-Non-Collectors-in-Doll-Collecting.htm
Lesson Plans for a
Doll Course:
Dolls and Material
Culture Studies:
Definition of a
Doll: Thinking outside the Doll House: http://collectdolls.about.com/od/Calendars-Tutorials-Alphabets-Quick-Studies/fl/Definition-of-a-Doll.htm
Building a General
Collection:
Dina Vierny: Artist
Model Doll Collector
Thoughts on Doll
Value and the Future of Doll Collecting:
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