Teddy, around 1920
After the end of World War II, Sabine Schastock, together with her family, is expelled from Upper Silesia, which now belongs to Poland. On her flight to West Germany, six-year-old Sabine is accompanied by this teddy bear. With the end of the war in 1945, the expulsion of Germans and German-speaking families begins, primarily from Poland, the eastern regions, Czechoslovakia, and to some extent from Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Polish, Czech, and other government authorities issue expulsion orders to the families. Additionally, especially the Poles and Czechs exert massive pressure in the villages and cities, and violent outbreaks are not uncommon. How much and what the expelled are allowed to take depends solely on the whims of the soldiers and officials overseeing the expulsion. The teddy bear is the only personal possession that Sabine Schastok can take with her. It is her comfort and her only friend during the forced resettlement, and later it becomes her only souvenir of her old homeland. Many people keep mementos from their childhood into old age. However, if, like Sabine Schastok, there is only a single object from this time, it gains significant value.
