Posted on October 23, 2025
How do you capture the stories of refugee children who fled Nazi persecution without their parents?
For students and faculty at the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at The University of Texas at Dallas, the answer was to create the University’s first stop-motion puppet animation, “Kinder Doll: A Kindertransport Story.”
The story is based on the Kindertransport rescue effort during World War II, which enabled thousands of unaccompanied children to travel from Nazi-occupied Europe to the United Kingdom. It follows two fictional children, Otto and Edith, who board a train to Britain with their most prized possessions — a teddy bear and a doll.
Six students — one of whom is now an alum — animated the film, set to debut at UT Dallas’ celebration of International Animation Day on Oct. 28.
The project was led by Dr. Christine Veras, assistant professor of animation and director of the experimenta.l. Animation Lab, in partnership with the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies. The film’s debut coincides with a Kindertransport exhibit at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.