“Dolly”

“Dolly” was the name Agatha Ressler of Machlovazia, Slovakia gave to her only doll. 

When her family was deported, Agatha chose her from amongst all her toys and believed that the doll protected her and kept her family alive.

  Agatha was five years old when the deportation of Jews from Slovakia to the concentration camps began.  Moshe and Olga Ressler and their three daughters, Aliza, Rachel and Agatha managed to dodge the deportations for three years, and finally fled the city and wandered through villages and forests.  In the village of Jarok, Vincent and Anna Tokli hid the Resslers in an abandoned wine cellar.  They remained there until  the Germans came and began shooting into the cellar.  The Resslers survived the shooting, but had to leave the cellar and move to another village, where a local farmer hid them under the floor of a cowshed. When the farmer and his wife realized that the Ressler’s money was running out, they decided to turn them in. They offered to wash the Ressler’s clothes, and Dolly’s dresses.  Dolly was laid next to the washing bowl until her clothes dried.  Meanwhile, the Slovak police were alerted and the Resslers were caught and imprisoned pending their deportation.  In all the turmoil, Dolly was left behind together with all their laundry.  Miraculously, the Resslers succeeded in escaping from the prison, and returned to the wine cellar adjacent to the Tokli’s house, where they hid until the liberation.

Agatha always felt that Dolly had watched over her during all their ordeals and wanderings, and thought of her as a magic charm. After the liberation she demanded, crying and shouting, that her parents go back to the farmers who betrayed them, and take Dolly.  Dolly was found amongst the farmers’ children’s toys.  She was broken, and no longer had her arms and legs.

The Resslers immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1947.  Vincent and Anna Tokli were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

Yad Vashem Collection, Jerusalem, Israel.

Donation, Miriam (Agatha Ressler) Fromer, Petach Tikva, Israel.