Doll Stories
Berlin, during the second world war !
September/ 2000
I was then the only daughter of my parents and I had one elder and three younger brothers. Every child has a room of its own and in the garden there lives the rabbit which belongs to my brothers, called "snowflake".
The bombs are continuesly falling and the way down the bunker became a custom. Wonce we returned out of the bunker onto the street and heard people shouting: "There comes a roast rabbit!"
My rother recognised his rabbit and shouted "That`s snowflake" and miraculously the rabbit turned and ran back home. I get a fright because I have forgotten to take my doll with me when we went down the bunker. Our house is badly hit and burns brightly.
Burning parts of our house fall down into the garden and on the street. I cry desperately for my beloved doll but the fireman say that there is nothing to do. One of the fireman finally asks for the way to my bedroom and returns into the burning house...
He saves my beloved doll and also the pram of my doll. Maybe this man also had a little daughter? In any case he was a man who risked his life to preserve a little bit of love and confidence in a destroying world.
Later on we lost again our home but this time I did not forget to take care of my doll. My doll has had lovely sleeping eyes with dark eyelashes and her hair consists of dark ringlets. Her mouth was slightly open and showed her teeth. She was about 55cm high and her clothes were of silklike materials.
She was a present of my father to his only daughter. She survived every difficult situation when finally the war was over. The Schildkroet company always enabled other small companies to produce dolls, maybe my doll was such a product. I do not know for sure since as a child one is not interested in brands.
When I was nineteen my parents got another girl. I never forgave my mother that she gave away my doll. No, not to my little sister which would have made some sense. No she gave my doll to strangers.
My doll looks similar to "Ella" from 1925 made by the Schildkroet company, and this is the reason why I later bought this nice doll and since then I turned into a passionate collector of dolls.
V. Olga Graupner
(C) Copyright 2000 by META Corporation. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form. Text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these Materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use.
© Copyright by META Corporation 1999 - 2002