When the Nazis forced his family out of their home and into the Budapest Ghetto, 7-year-old John Hajdu took his teddy bear with him. John’s beloved toy accompanied him as he survived Nazi occupation, lived through the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, escaped to Austria and made a new life for himself in London. His story is brought to life by filmmakers Christopher Noxon and Rebecca Odes.

From filmmakers Christopher Noxon and Rebecca Odes

It’s all about the teddy. That’s what hooked us into this project initially – a tattered, well-loved teddy bear, which Juliet Simmons pulled out of a box in the YIVO archive. It told a story we wanted to hear. A harrowing, remarkable and ultimately beautiful story of a child and a family and a journey from war and destruction to safety and acceptance.

Stories of refugees are hard to hear, and easy to brush off – the dislocation and violence experienced by people forced to flee their homes too often becomes a generalized “issue.” But what Juliet summons with this project is the magic power of ordinary objects to disrupt that habitual resistance. John Hajdu’s teddy bear, along with Aurora Zinder’s crockery and all the objects described in this project, help us see ourselves in stories we might otherwise dismiss.

With this short film we focused on a child’s-eye view of John’s story, juxtaposing paper doll figures with photos and footage of real life events to do what that teddy bear does so naturally: open our hearts.