A remarkable collection of Disney inspired artworks created by Holocaust survivors and victims is set to be unveiled by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

The artworks illustrate how Disney characters served as emotional lifelines for Jewish children navigating the terrors of Nazi-occupied Europe. To be displayed is a drawing inspired by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” created in March 1941 by Henri Kichka, then a 15-year-old boy who had lost his family in the gas chambers.

“Henri Kichka found refuge in the magical world of fairy tales. After the war, he returned to Brussels and collected items from the family apartment, including this drawing which he gave to his daughter Hanna, who immigrated to Israel in 1970. Hanna passed the drawing to her son Yaron, who received a dedication from his grandfather,” Yad Vashem Art Director Moreh-Rosenberg tells Israel Hayom.

Another significant item is a birthday card featuring Mickey Mouse, created by Suzanne Schick on her 15th birthday while in hiding in Yugoslavia. It became Schick’s most prized possession for 72 years until she decided Yad Vashem should be its new guardian.

Among the collection’s most poignant pieces is a Pinocchio-adorned jar by survivor Lilly Kasticher. Buried along with personal mementos before she was sent to Auschwitz, this artistic time capsule later became a literal vessel of survival, bringing Holocaust victims’ writings and sketches to the Holy Land.

Yad Vashem’s new Shaffer building will showcase these Disney inspired artworks alongside millions of Holocaust-related documents and artifacts. The 63,300-square-foot facility will house approximately 227 million pages of documentation, tens of thousands of historical objects and artworks, and hundreds of thousands of photographs and survivor testimonies.