Isabel Wachenheimer voor een kinderwagen en met een pop in haar armen, april-mei 1935, Stuttgart Possibly 1935

This photograph, taken in Stuttgart between April and May of 1935 by an anonymous photographer, depicts a young girl named Isabel Wachenheimer. The black and white image shows Isabel holding a doll, standing in front of a baby carriage and patterned curtain. Captured on the cusp of World War II, the photograph offers a complex lens through which we can examine gender, identity, and the innocence of childhood overshadowed by impending historical events. Isabel’s positioning with the doll and carriage evokes traditional expectations of women as caregivers, yet the historical context infuses the image with tension. As a Jewish child in 1935 Germany, Isabel’s future was uncertain, her identity targeted by the growing Nazi regime. The photograph thus becomes a poignant intersection of personal identity and political reality, of innocence and looming threat. This image invites us to reflect on the experiences of children during wartime, and on how personal histories are deeply entwined with broader historical narratives.