By Hillel Kuttler, Times of Israel—
For decades as an adult, Lore Mayerfeld kept a doll on a chair in an off-limits bedroom or high on a shelf. Her children — and later her grandchildren and great-grandchildren — knew not to play with the toy for fear of breaking it.
Dressed in off-white pajamas adorned with colorful bunnies and chicks, the doll named Inge represents more than a sentimental item from Mayerfeld’s childhood in Kassel, Germany.
It is her direct link to Kristallnacht, the fearful night in November 1938 that would exile Mayerfeld and her parents, Markus and Kaetchen Stern, to the United States. Mayerfeld, then 1 1/2 years years old and wearing those two-piece pajamas, took her blonde-haired, blue-eyed doll into hiding.
The doll had been given to Lore (pronounced Laura) by a grandparent, although she’s not sure which one.
Now 81 and living in Israel, Mayerfeld donated the doll and pajamas earlier this year to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national institution commemorating the Holocaust. Continue Reading…
