Lenci Doll, Hitler Youth Movement
Highland Museum of Childhood

This blonde-haired doll is originally from Germany and is modelled on a young member of the Hitler Youth Movement. This was an organisation set up by Adolf Hitler in 1933 to train and educate German teenagers in the principles of Nazi ideology.

German propaganda in the form of books, games and dolls like this one, played a huge part in children’s attraction and allegiance to the Nazi party.

This doll was given to its original owner, a young German girl, by her nanny in 1935. On passing down through generations, it was never played with and was kept in a cupboard because of its dubious past.