Students Learn About the Holocaust at Author Visit

Author Melissa Mikel visited the Lower School on November 29 to share her book, The Doll: A Child’s Survival of the Holocaust, with students. It tells the story of seven-year-old Faigie Libman who is inseparable from the Shirley Temple doll she received from her aunt. The doll makes her life bearable as she endures the struggles of life during the Second World War and the Holocaust. When Faigie and her family are sent to the ghetto in their hometown of Kaunas, Lithuania, Faigie ends up separated from her precious doll. Many years later, a generous stranger hears Libman’s story and gifts her a replacement Shirley Temple doll.

The boys were captivated by Mikel’s story. They asked questions that showed their understanding of the Holocaust and were curious about the details of Libman’s life and struggles. One boy asked whether Libman’s aunt, who lived in New York at the time, was impacted by the war in the way that Faigie and her family were. 

Everyone in the room gasped upon hearing that the kind stranger was Mikel’s mother, an antique doll maker. Via a pre-taped message from her home in Toronto, the now 88-year-old Libman. encouraged students to cultivate love in their lives. “If you have love in your heart, there is no room for hate.”