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14. The Doll: A Lesson in Historical Detective Work

This activity can be carried out in a classroom or in a museum.

Target group: Students, youth (14 years old and older)

Duration: 60 minutes

Group size: 8-30 participants

Learning activities from the Falstad Centre, used in the MUCIT: Museums as Sites of Citizenship project.

Activity objective

This activity aims to guide participants in analyzing a physical historical artifact – a doll made in a WWII prison camp, to explore human experiences under wartime imprisonment, such as humor, coping mechanisms, and quiet resistance. Besides working with historical empathy, it fosters source criticism skills.

Expected learning results

By the end of the activity, participants will be able to:

– apply historical methods of source criticism and interpretation to a physical or visual artifact; 

– differentiate between initial speculative hypotheses and evidence-backed historical analysis; 

– explain how satirical humor and creative expression served as forms of psychological resistance under totalitarian regimes; 

– reflect on how personal, private stories enrich or challenge grand national historical narrative.

Description of the activity

Part I: The Mystery Artifact (25 minutes)

Introduction (3-4 mins). Do not tell the participants what the doll represents, who made it, or where it comes from. Keep any identifying labels, sheets, or exhibition text hidden. Display a large high-resolution image (or pass around a physical replica) of the doll.

Group work (15 mins). Place participants in groups of 3–4. Hand out the first part of the worksheet  or show the following questions on a slide and ask each group to come up with the answers: 

1. Who or what does this doll represent? 

2.  Who do you think made this object, and where? 

3. What materials and craftsmanship can you observe? (How was it made?)

4. What was its purpose?

Plenary pitch (5-8 mins). Have each group briefly share their theories. Do not correct or validate them yet.

Part II: The Reveal & Context (5-10 minutes)

Announce that the doll was designed to represent Adolf Hitler in a prison uniform. Introduce the actual historical context. Explain that the SS Strafgefangenenlager Falstad was established in autumn 1941, holding over 4,200 prisoners (including 215 women). Present the story of Aase Rønning (18) and Bodil Kvaale (18), arrested in autumn 1942 for helping foreign prisoners of war. Show their historical photo. While working in the prison sewing room, they used leftover scrap textiles to sneakily construct this doll.

Share the quote from Bodil’s son: “The doll was supposed to represent Adolf Hitler and was wearing a prison uniform. The portrait was not very similar. The doll was missing the Hitler mustache, among other things. But they had a lot of fun making things go wrong with the doll when they made little sketches with it.” Explain that they used it in secret humorous skits to entertain each other and survive the mental toll of imprisonment.

(see below for the sources for the presentation).

Part III. Verification (10-15 minutes)

Hand out the second part of the worksheet  / show a slide with new questions. Ask the same groups to answer them.

1. Evidence: What direct historical information does this object provide about daily conditions in Falstad?

2. Limitations: What questions remain unanswered? What does this physical object not tell us on its own?

3. Hypothesis vs. Fact: How did having no context in Part I change your initial assumptions? How does the true story rewrite what you originally saw?

After the groups finish working on this task ask everyone to gather together in a circle for the debriefing.

Reflection

  1. What surprised you the most about the story of this doll?
  2. How did your feelings about the doll change from when you first saw it to when you learned it represented Adolf Hitler in a prison uniform?
  3. What have you learned from this activity?
  4. Why was it important for Aase and Bodil to make a doll in the camp?
  5. Why do you think Aase and Bodil chose to make a doll representing Adolf Hitler instead of something else?
  6. How does engaging with a single, highly personal object change your perspective of history compared to reading a standard textbook?
    • Optional / additional questions 
  7. How does creating art or personal items in a prison camp help protect an individual’s sense of human dignity and identity?
  8. In what ways can humor, mockery, and creative play act as tools of resistance in highly dangerous, restrictive environments like a Nazi prison camp?
  9. What role does preserving personal, small-scale artifacts (like this doll) play in how we remember large-scale historical crises today?
  10. How does this doll challenge or expand standard ideas of WWII “resistance” (which usually focus on armed, military, or organized acts)?

Tips for teachers/ educators

Required materials

  • Photo of the doll; photos of Aase Rønning and Bodil Kvaale; short presentation about the SS Strafgefangenenlager Falstad.
  • Questions from Part I and Part III can be printed in the form of worksheets to be distributed to the small groups.


Sebastian Klein / The Falstad Centre; Khrystyna Chushak / The European Wergeland Centre

Appendix

A photo of a doll – AppendixDownload