0_01: Children's Art During the Holocaust
1943 April, Front side - Drawing from Doris Warschawski (Fogel) in Shanghai.
Tan paper with colored drawing outlined in pencil. Featured is a barn on a hill, colored in red, blue, yellow, and green. At the bottom left is cursive handwriting in German using pencil. At the bottom center, Doris's initials in colored pencil.
Name/Title
0_01: Children's Art During the HolocaustEntry/Object ID
2024.2.1Scope and Content
1943 April, drawing from Doris Warschawski (Fogel) in Shanghai.Context
During war and genocide, children often see and hear the same horror and violence to which adults are exposed. But with innate creativity and emotional sensitivity, children sometimes see more than adults can see. The misery, death, and suffering they experience becomes inseparable from the beauty, hope, and joy they also feel. The rich and complicated inner world of children is reflected in the pictures they paint, the doodles they draw, their personal letters, and even in routine school assignments. The artifacts from the minds and hands of children who witnessed the Holocaust appear to be completely ordinary: drawings of flowers, an arrangement of stamps, a Mother's Day post card. In another sense, they are extraordinary windows into the emotional experience of children as they were forced to adapt to the every-changing circumstances of the war. In genocides throughout history, the breakdown of humanity becomes complete when barbarism and destruction does not even spare the children in a society. The impact reaches far into the future. These drawings and writings speak to us of the capacity of human beings to remain hopeful, to find beauty, and to courageously carry on despite uncertainty and loss. Doris Warschawski (b. May 3, 1934, Berlin, Germany). After Kristallnacht in November 1938, Doris and her mother Edith found refuge in Shanghai from 1939 to 1947 before immigrating to the USA. Doris was fond of drawing while in Shanghai and many of her works survived. The drawing of a barn on a hill signed with Doris's initials, includes her mother's inscriptions: My sweet one April 1943 Not quite 9 years old! For an in-depth exploration on Doris Fogel, please refer to Kevin Ostoyich's extensive research article "Paper Routes: Conveying Doris (neé Warschawski) Fogel's Message to Future Generations." To read the article, refer to the additional artifacts at the bottom lefthand of this screen. Copy and paste this link into your website browser:Collection
Doris FogelCategory
Illustration
Philatelic Material