Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, has launched a groundbreaking initiative called the Touching Memory Theater.
In a powerful new approach to Holocaust education, this theater uses live performance to bring individual stories to life, connecting audiences with the past through the immediacy and emotional impact of drama.
As Noa Or, a curator in the artifact collection of Yad Vashem and one of the key figures involved in developing the theater project, explains, “These plays offer a unique way to engage with history, making it personal and unforgettable.”
The Touching Memory Theater presents a series of moving monodramas, each inspired by individual experiences and artifacts from Yad Vashem’s vast collection.
These include Bear and the Toy Underground, a play that explores the power of imagination to overcome challenging circumstances (suitable for children from age 10 with parental accompaniment); Unetaneh Tokef: The Strength of the Jewish Spirit, which delves into the power of faith in adversity (suitable for ages 16 and over); and Leo – Artist of Truth and Deception, the extraordinary life story of artist and caricaturist Leo Haas (suitable for ages 16 and over).
Among these compelling productions, the story inspired by Fred Lessing, a Holocaust survivor whose childhood was defined by hiding and the constant comfort of his toy bear, takes center stage in Bear and the Toy Underground. Fred, born in 1936, passed away recently at the age of 88.
Fred shared his survival story, bearing witness to humanity’s darkest chapter and serving as a stark reminder of the horrors that arise when antisemitism and bigotry go unchecked.
It’s particularly poignant that his experience of hiding in solitude with his treasured teddy bear became the inspiration for this play at Yad Vashem’s Touching Memory Theater.
Fred was four years old when the Germans invaded Holland, plunging him into an incomprehensible reality. By the time he was six and the deportation of Jews began, his understanding of the world was irrevocably altered.
“You are Jewish children. But if anyone finds this out, they will kill you,” Fred recalled his mother, Engeline, saying with terrible clarity. “We are leaving the house now; do not take anything with you, just wear your coats and we’ll act like we’re going out for a stroll. We don’t want to draw any attention.”
As his family fled their home in Delft, Fred made a split-second decision that would shape his survival. He reached for his teddy bear – “Bear” – hid it in his coat, and walked out. It was the only remnant of normalcy he would carry into his unknown future.
For three interminable years, Fred’s life became a series of temporary shelters, separated from the rest of his family. His mother, reinventing herself with each new hiding place, left him in the care of strangers before returning to move him elsewhere.
In each new home, Fred understood the brutal calculus of his survival: “I understood that I had to be the sweetest, the most polite, the most considerate, and always ready to help so that I wouldn’t be thrown out.”
Bear remained his constant companion. In the quiet darkness of attic rooms, Fred would hold his bear close, sucking his thumb and rubbing the plush paw against his nose until the fur wore thin. “I would talk to Bear all the time, share my feelings with him, and cry to him,” Fred recalled. “He was my only connection to my family.”
They remained inseperable
After liberation, Fred and Bear remained inseparable – the stuffed toy no longer merely a childhood comfort but a physical embodiment of survival against impossible odds. Decades later, Fred made the difficult decision to entrust his treasured companion over to Yad Vashem.
“I spoke with my bear and explained that, for the first time ever, we were to be parted,” Fred said. “The reason I gave was that he had an important mission – to go to Israel to be part of an exhibition with other toys from the Holocaust, and there he would tell our story to children who would come to visit the exhibition.”
Lending Bear to Yad Vashem blossomed into something greater than he imagined. His bear, worn to the seams, with patient tan sewn eyes, became a centerpiece of Yad Vashem’s innovative Touching Memory Theater project, prominently featured in playwright Oren Neeman’s play Bear and the Toy Underground.
In this production at Yad Vashem, audiences witness six-year-old Fred in hiding, his beloved Bear coming to life to comfort him and guide him through a secret journey with other toys.
The play, as Noa Or describes it, “shows us the power of a child’s imagination to create a world of hope even in the darkest of times.” It speaks to the transcendent power of imagination in the face of unspeakable circumstances – a testament to how the human spirit finds ways to endure when all logical hope has vanished. Sadly, Fred never lived to see the show.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear of Fred Lessing’s passing, made all the more unfortunate by the fact that he never got to see his story shared through the Touching Memories project – something he and his family had been looking forward to,” said Medy Shvide, director of Yad Vashem Collections.
“Thousands of artifacts that tell the history of families devastated by the Holocaust are preserved in our collections, but Fred Lessing’s story stood out,” Noa Or explains.
“His experience offers a unique opportunity to connect with the world, especially the youth, through a story of survival and perseverance that can be told at eye level and with a simple item that could have belonged to any child. Yet, his story lives on – held close in the hearts of those who knew and loved him. Through Bear, his spirit continues to shine, touching lives and sharing Fred’s journey in a way only he could.”
One such instance from Fred’s life that resonates with the themes of the play occurred when Fred was sick with a high fever while in hiding. His mother managed to visit briefly. She tenderly asked if he needed anything before she departed again. Fred held up his bear, missing its head that was torn off by a dog. “I would like Bear to have a new head,” he said.
The next morning, his mother was gone, but Bear had been mended – a new head fashioned from the lining of his coat, a quiet act of love in a world gone mad.
Fred’s passing is not just a personal loss for his family but a profound reminder of this approaching turning point in history. We stand at the threshold of a world without Holocaust survivors – a world where first-person testimony will exist only in recordings, writings, and artifacts.
The child survivors, who experienced the Holocaust through the vulnerable perspective of youth, are now leaving us. Their understanding was simple and profound – they knew fear before they could name it, experienced loss before they understood it would stay with them forever.
The Touching Memory Theater, therefore, takes on an even greater significance, ensuring that these stories continue to be told with power and immediacy.
Fred Lessing has left us. May his memory be a blessing, and may Bear help continue to tell his story.
Some performances are in English. For details, visit Yad Vashem’s website.
