Bear, a stuffed koala bear, with modern covering, carried by a German Jewish girl on a Kindertransport
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, United States
Stuffed koala bear named Bear, with cover knitted by Gisela in 2001, carried by Gisela Marx, 14, on a Kindertransport from Dulken, Germany, to Great Britain in August 1939. The Nazi regime, in power since 1933, persecuted the Jewish population. Leopold, a former diplomat and WWI veteran, and Erna, a member of a wealthy, landowning family, thought their status would protect them, but in 1939, they decided to send Gisela to safety. The friend paid to care for her never showed up, and she was sent to live with an Orthodox rabbi, and then to boarding school. In 1941, Gisela had to perform military service and she became a nurse. She worked in a children’s hospital in London. When it was bombed during the Blitz, she was transferred to an American military hospital in Surrey. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Gisela’s parents were deported and killed in the Riga Ghetto in December 1941.
- Title: Bear, a stuffed koala bear, with modern covering, carried by a German Jewish girl on a Kindertransport
- Provenance: The stuffed koala bear was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by The George Washington University, which received the item as a bequest from the Estate of John P. Eden.
- Subject Keywords: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives. Jewish children in the Holocaust--Germany--Biography. Jewish refugees--Great Britain--Biography. Jews, German--England--Biography. Kindertransports (Rescue operations)--Great Britain--Personal narratives, German. Refugee children--England--Biography.
- Type: Toys
- Rights: Permanent Collection
- External Link: See the full record at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Medium: a. Small, light brown stiff leather koala bear covered with brown and white artificial fur and stuffed with a firm material. The bear sits upright on a flat bottom. The large head is sewn on with light brown thread, and it has no neck. It has pointed ears with white fur on the front. It has stitched eyebrows and a black, plastic oval nose with a pushed in snout. The eyes have been lost. It has short stubby fore and hind legs that stick out in front. The right hind leg has a black plastic paw with 4 claws; the left fore and hind leg have fragments of black plastic in the seams. Both forelegs have handstitched repairs in the front edge. The fur has rubbed off in several places that protrude, such as the ear tips, snout, and back, from being held. b. Rib stitched, handknit, square, offwhite yarn covering with a black elastic drawstring cord threaded around the upper edge. The covering was made in 2001.
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