Finding Disney in the Darkness: How artists drew inspiration from Disney during the Holocaust

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Fifteen-year-old Henri Kichka likely never imagined when he painted a scene from the animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" that he would soon lose every member of his family in the wake of World War II.

The scene, which features the colorful cast of diminutive characters from the beloved 1937 Disney classic plodding along the top of a fallen tree, is just one in a series of Disney-inspired pieces of art set to be displayed by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum. These artifacts will be housed in the museum's new Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus and David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Center, which opens Monday in Jerusalem.

Juxtaposed against the backdrop of rising antisemitism and the German occupation of Belgium, Kichka painted the playful work of art on March 8, 1941, "finding comfort amidst the magic of fairytales," according to Yad Vashem. Just months later, Nazi soldiers would deport his mother, sister and aunt to Poland's Auschwitz concentration camp, where they later perished.

"The Holocaust was a period of unimaginable suffering and loss, yet amid the darkness, many found solace and a means to preserve their humanity through art. This form of expression became a coping mechanism and a way to hope for better time," said Simmy Allen, head of International Media at Yad Vashem.

Kichka, who was able to retrieve his artwork after the war, is one of several artists who incorporated fanciful Disney themes into their work despite living amidst the chaotic years that darkened Europe's doorstep from 1936-1945. During World War II, Hitler's Nazi regime murdered six million Jews as well as untold numbers of others, including Romanies, Jehovah's Witnesses, gay people, people with disabilities, and more.

Sarika "Sarah" Kalderon was one of those victims. Born in 1923 in Belgrade, Kalderon kept a diary from 1936-1940 and filled it with doodles of Mickey Mouse skiing down a snow slope, and an angry Donald Duck appearing to yell at someone off of the page. Donated by her cousin to the Israeli Holocaust museum, the diary includes drawings, blessings, dedications, and poems, written by friends and family in Serbian, Croatian, French, and Hebrew, according to Yad Vashem. Kalderon was killed in 1942 in the Holocaust.

Perhaps the most well-known of the Disney-themed artists was Bruno Schulz. A Polish author and artist, Schulz was taken when the Nazis occupied his hometown of Drohobych, now part of Ukraine, but was saved from the death camps when SS Soldier Felix Landau, who had commandeered a home in Drohobych, ordered Schulz to paint fairytale-themed murals on the walls of the home's nursery, and elsewhere.

Schulz's paintings "stand as a poignant reminder of how art can serve as both an act of resistance and a means of survival," according to Yad Vashem. One of Schulz's murals, "Snow White Accompanied by Dwarves," is housed in its Museum of Holocaust Art.

Other works of Disney-inspired art include a painted urn created by Yugoslavian artist Lili Kashtichker that features the naughty puppet Pinocchio. In the days before her deportation to Auschwitz, Kashtichker hid her family's documents and photos in the urn and buried it.

While held at Auschwitz and later at the Ober-Hohenelbe concentration camp, Kashtichker refused to let despair douse her zest for art. She organized other prisoners and held painting, poetry and short story writing contests, building a sense of community and creativity despite the death that surrounded them. according to Yad Vashem. Kashtichker eventually returned after the war to collect the urn, and brought it and other pieces of her art to Israel, where she immigrated after 1948.

"When reflecting on this collection of Holocaust artifacts featuring Disney characters, it is truly remarkable to observe the prevalence of a common motif," said Yad Vashem's Allen. "The most impressive aspect of this collection is how individuals, who were otherwise unrelated and scattered across different geographic locations, gravitated towards these iconic images."

"Despite the complexities and uncertainties of life during that time, the enduring strength of human imagination shines through in these artifacts," Allen added. "They serve as a poignant reminder of how creativity and hope can persist even in the darkest of times."