In Kraków, Poland, on April 17, 1937, a girl named Rivka Klein was born. The youngest in her family, she was always seen clutching a tiny cloth doll. Neighbors would smile and say, “Where Rivka goes, the doll goes too.”
Her childhood should have been full of play and laughter. But by the age of four, she and her family were forced into the Kraków Ghetto. Food was scarce, fear was constant — yet Rivka held tightly to her doll, her last comfort in a world falling apart.
In March 1943, when the ghetto was liquidated, Rivka and her parents were deported to Auschwitz. Soldiers tore the doll from her hands. Shortly after arriving, Rivka’s young life ended. She was only six years old.
Rivka’s story is more than just a statistic. She was a little girl who loved her doll — a child who deserved a full, joyful life.
May her memory be a blessing.