Skip to main content

Search the Holocaust Encyclopedia

Trending keywords:
Holocaust survivor Frank Liebermann has a conversation with his teddy bear. Germany, 1933–35. On Frank Liebermann’s first day of school in Gleiwitz, Germany, in 1935, he reported to one of the few small classrooms set aside for Jews. After school, he rushed home to avoid antisemitic attacks. In 1936, it got worse. Anti-Jewish laws now banned Frank from playgrounds and swimming pools. The family decided it was time to leave and applied for US visas. They were lucky. In October 1938, the Liebermanns boarded a ship bound for the United States.
< Browse all tags

teddy bears and toys

To many people, teddy bears and toys are precious mementos or symbols of childhood. Some of these photographs capture snapshots of life before the devastation of war and destruction of communities during the Holocaust. Browse these images to learn about the experiences of children and their families during and after the Holocaust. 

Other images capture the use of toys for indoctrinating youth and spreading Nazi ideology. 

More information about this image

All Content Tagged 'teddy bears and toys'

These tiny black, white, gold, and clear glass beads were used by Rachel “Chelly” de Groot from November 1942 to April 1944 and recovered by her brother Louis after the war. Chelly used the beads to make handicrafts. On November 16, 1942, Chelly, then 15, Louis, 13, and their parents Meijer and Sophia left Arnhem and went into hiding after the Dutch police warned them of a raid. Meijer and Sophia hid in Amsterdam while Chelly and Louis moved around to different locations. In summer or fall 1943, Chelly went to Amsterdam to live with her parents. In December, Louis was sent to Lemmer to live with the Onderweegs family. In February 1944, Dirk Onderweegs offered to take Chelly to a safer hiding place. But on April 8, 1944, four days before Dirk was to return, Chelly and her parents were denounced and arrested. They were sent to Westerbork transit camp, then to Auschwitz. Chelly and Sophia were killed upon arrival in Auschwitz on May 22, 1944. Meijer was selected for a work detail and was killed later on September 30, 1944. Louis remained in hiding with the Onderweegs until liberation in mid-April 1945.
Artifact
Beads used by a Dutch Jewish girl in hiding
Document issued by the Regional Agricultural Mercantile Cooperative in Busko-Zdroj certifying that Bronislawa Tymejko (the false identity of Sophie Schwarzwald's mother, Laura Schwarzwald) was employed by the cooperative, dated November 1942.
Article
Collections Highlight: Selma Schwarzwald and her Bear, "Refugee"
Media Essay
Collections Highlight: Selma Schwarzwald and her Bear, "Refugee" - Animated Map/Map
Media Essay
Collections Highlight: Selma Schwarzwald and her Bear, "Refugee" - Photograph
Media Essay
Collections Highlight: Selma Schwarzwald and her Bear, "Refugee" - ID Card/Oral History
In 1942, seven-year-old Inge Auerbacher was deported with her parents to the Theresienstadt ghetto. She brought along this doll, named “Marlene” after German actress Marlene Dietrich, which her grandmother had given her. It would remain with Inge throughout her three years of imprisonment in the ghetto.
Photo
Doll belonging to Inge Auerbacher
Zofia Burowska (Chorowicz) donated this doll, which dates from the 1930s, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Zofia's parents gave her the doll before the war and she kept it with her in the Wolbrum and Krakow ghettos, Poland. The doll and some of her family's other belongings were left with non-Jewish friends for safekeeping. Zofia was deported to a forced-labor camp for Jews near Krakow, to the Skarzysko-Kamienna camp (also in Poland), and then to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, where she was liberated. After the war, she returned to Krakow and retrieved her doll.
Artifact
Doll from the Krakow ghetto
Holocaust survivor Frank Liebermann has a conversation with his teddy bear. Germany, 1933–35. On Frank Liebermann’s first day of school in Gleiwitz, Germany, in 1935, he reported to one of the few small classrooms set aside for Jews. After school, he rushed home to avoid antisemitic attacks. In 1936, it got worse. Anti-Jewish laws now banned Frank from playgrounds and swimming pools. The family decided it was time to leave and applied for US visas. They were lucky. In October 1938, the Liebermanns boarded a ship bound for the United States.
Photo
Frank Liebermann has a conversation with his teddy bear
In this portrait, Helena Husserlova, wearing a Jewish badge, poses with her daughter Zdenka who is holding a teddy bear. The photograph was taken shortly before they were deported to Theresienstadt. Zdenka was born in Prague on February 6, 1939. On October 10, 1941, when Zdenka was just two and a half years old, her father was deported to the Lodz ghetto. He died there almost a year later, on September 23, 1942. Following his deportation, Helena and Zdenka returned to Helena's hometown to live with her mother and uncle. They stayed there for a year before they were deported to Theresienstadt on November 16, 1942. Helena was subsequently deported to Auschwitz on October 19, 1944, where she died at the age of 34. Zdenka remained in Theresienstadt until the liberation. After the war Zdenka was placed on a transport of 300 child survivors to England sponsored by the British philanthropist, Leonard Montefiore.  
Photo
Helena Husserlova with her daughter, Zdenka
Norbert was 3 years old when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. He and his mother were in Warsaw; his father had been drafted into the Polish army and later ended up in Vilna. Norbert and his mother set out to join him and the family was reunited after a few months. After the family had been in Vilna for about a year, Norbert's father was able to obtain visas for Curacao in the Dutch West Indies and visas for transit through Japan. Norbert and his parents left Vilna in January 1941, and arrived in Kobe, Japan, in February. They stayed in Japan for the next eight months, until Japanese authorities required them to leave for Shanghai in Japanese-occupied China. Norbert and his parents spent the rest of the war in Shanghai. In June 1947 the family immigrated to the United States with the aid of Jewish American servicemen stationed in Shanghai after the war.
Oral History
Norbert I. Swislocki describes fleeing from Warsaw with his mother
Robert Coopman was born in the Netherlands in September 1940.  This 1941 photograph shows Robert holding a telephone while sitting next to a teddy bear. He and his parents lived in Amsterdam where his father was a salesman and bookkeeper.  In July 1942, fearing for their safety, Robert's parents placed him in hiding with the Viejou family in Naarden.  He was less than two years old. He lived as a member of the household until August 1944, when a neighbor betrayed them. Robert was  eventually deported to Theresienstadt.  His parents were deported to Sobibor.  Although malnourished and ill, Robert survived Theresienstadt. The Viejous eventually found Robert and after he had recuperated, he returned to live with his rescuer family until he was 18 years old.   
Photo
Photograph of Robert Coopman
At some point after the war, Sophie received this small stuffed bear (about three inches high) as a present from her mother. She named it “Refugee,” just like she and her mother were refugees of the war.
Photo
Refugee the bear
A replica of "Refugee" bear and a photo of a Darfurian child refugee, items taken by Commander Mark Polansky (pictured) on a December 2006 Space Shuttle mission.
Photo
"Refugee" the bear and a photo of a Darfurian child refugee
Sophie was born Selma Schwarzwald to parents Daniel and Laura in the industrial city of Lvov, two years before Germany invaded Poland. Daniel was a successful businessman who exported timber and Laura had studied economics. The Germans occupied Lvov in 1941. After her father's disappearance on her fifth birthday in 1941, Sophie and her mother procured false names and papers and moved to a small town called Busko-Zdroj. They became practicing Catholics to hide their identities. Sophie gradually forgot that she was Jewish. It was not until after their liberation and move to London that Sophie learned the truth about her past.
Oral History
Sophie Turner-Zaretsky describes how both she and her bear are survivors
Sophie was born Selma Schwarzwald to parents Daniel and Laura in the industrial city of Lvov, two years before Germany invaded Poland. Daniel was a successful businessman who exported timber and Laura had studied economics. The Germans occupied Lvov in 1941. After her father's disappearance on her fifth birthday in 1941, Sophie and her mother procured false names and papers and moved to a small town called Busko-Zdroj. They became practicing Catholics to hide their identities. Sophie gradually forgot that she was Jewish. It was not until after their liberation and move to London that Sophie learned the truth about her past.
Oral History
Sophie Turner-Zaretsky describes how her teddy bear came into her possession
Sophie was born Selma Schwarzwald to parents Daniel and Laura in the industrial city of Lvov, two years before Germany invaded Poland. Daniel was a successful businessman who exported timber and Laura had studied economics. The Germans occupied Lvov in 1941. After her father's disappearance on her fifth birthday in 1941, Sophie and her mother procured false names and papers and moved to a small town called Busko-Zdroj. They became practicing Catholics to hide their identities. Sophie gradually forgot that she was Jewish. It was not until after their liberation and move to London that Sophie learned the truth about her past.
Oral History
Sophie Turner-Zaretsky describes how her teddy bear was given his name

Thank you for supporting our work

We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.