This exhibition derives its name from an excerpt from Janusz Korczak’s “Rules of Life”, A Childhood of Dignity:
It is not proper to be ashamed of any game. This is no child’s play. It is wrong for adults to say – and for the more intelligent of the children to repeat after them ‘Such a big boy and he plays like a baby; such a big girl and she still plays with dolls.’ What matters is not what one plays with, but rather how and what one thinks and feels while playing. One can play wisely with a doll or play childishly and foolishly at chess. One can play with great interest and imagination at being a policeman, making a train, being a hunter or an Indian, and one can read books without any thought or interest. Approximately one and a half million of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust were children. The number of children who survived is estimated in the mere thousands.
This exhibition opens a window into the world of children during the Shoah. Unlike other Holocaust exhibitions, it does not focus on history, statistics or descriptions of physical violence. Instead, the toys, games, artwork, diaries, and poems displayed here highlight some of the personal stories of the children, providing a glimpse into their lives during the Holocaust.
Dolls and teddy bears became integral parts of the lives of the children they belonged to during the war. In many cases, they accompanied them throughout the war and were a primary source of comfort and companionship. For some children, the teddy bears and dolls were the most significant possessions left with them at the end of the war. Even today, as adults, their attachment is so great that they have difficulty separating from them.
The exhibition tells the story of survival – the struggle of these children to hold on to life. It describes their attempts to maintain their childhood and youth by creating for themselves a different reality from that which surrounded them. In many cases, it was the children who gave their parents the encouragement and hope to continue their desperate daily fight for survival.
This exhibition consists of 17 Panels. Each panel is approximately 800 mm x 1200 mm
Art in the Holocaust
These artworks from the Yad Vashem Collection were created by artists between 1939 and 1945 and represent a living testimony from the Holocaust, as well as a declaration of the indomitable human spirit that refuses to surrender. This exhibition provides a glimpse into art created during the Holocaust in ghettos, camps, forests, and while in […]
BESA
A Code of Honor
BESA – A Code of Honor, Muslim Albanians Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust has brought an interfaith aspect to Holocaust education. This exhibition is based on 12 large photographs taken by Norman Gershman, and the outstanding rescue stories of Muslim-Albanian families who saved Jews and were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad […]
The Anguish of Liberation
This special exhibition, features works created between 1945 and 1947 and attempts to investigate how survivors reacted to the liberation through art. For most of these survivor-artists, the ability to paint again signified freedom and renewed independence. The choice of their art’s subject and the grip on the pencil or brush symbolically restored a feeling […]
Spots of Light
Women in the Holocaust
This exhibition gives expression to the unique voice of Jewish women in the Holocaust. Their choices and responses in the face of the evil, brutality and relentless hardship that they were forced to grapple with. The exhibition features nine aspects of the Jewish woman’s daily life during the Holocaust: Love, Motherhood, Caring for Others, Womanhood, […]
Stars Without a Heaven
Children in the Holocaust
Of the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust there were approximately 1.5 million children. Only a few survived against all odds. This exhibition is dedicated to the unique stories of children during the Holocaust. During a period when Jewish communities underwent social and familial upheaval, children living in this reality essentially lost their childhood. […]