Vicki dolls were a popular toy for girls in the Greater Germanic Reich. They came in a variety of styles and versions, such as the New Orleans Vicki (a pre-Civil War Southern belle doll).
The dolls were manufactured in the United States through the use of prison labor. Keeping in line with the racist policies of the Nazi Party, all products looked perfectly Aryan.
Heinrich Gimpel purchased the New Orleans Vicki as a birthday present for Anna Stutzman. That particular version was a sought after toy. Nonetheless, Gimpel worried that the doll would be out of fashion by the time he gave it to Anna. It was not. Anna was quite delighted.[1]
While reaching for the doll, a woman who turned out to be Erika Dorsch reached for the same doll. Fortunately the craze for that type had peaked and there were others available. Gimpel remarked on an incident a few months earlier where two women went to court over a doll. He thought the judge should have acted like King Solomon and cut the doll in half. This caused grief for Gimpel, as it gave his jilted admirer Erika Dorsch the idea to publicly accuse Gimpel of being Jewish - an assertion which, unknown to Dorsch, was correct.
Literary comment[]
Vicki appears to be based on Barbie. In Colonization: Second Contact, Harry Turtledove similarly suggested that Barbie would be popular in a version of Nazi Germany.
Incidentally, the inspiration behind Barbie was the real-life German doll character Bild Lilli created by Reinhard Beuthien in 1952.
References[]
- ↑ In the Presence of Mine Enemies, pgs. 251-252, HC.
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