Children's Toys

WWII toys were popular almost from the time the war broke out.  Themed soldier dolls, airplanes, and tanks often carried a bit of nostalgia for the first world war with the promise of a second.

Metal and tin toys were popular at the onset of WWII, while the modern miracle of plastics allowed safer dolls and stuffed animals with plastic bodies and eyes instead of glass ones.  Rationing, however, took a heavy toll on children’s playthings.  Mid-WWII toys were more likely to be made of wood or cardboard if they were available at all. Metal and tin toys disappeared almost entirely as kids scrapped their toy planes to make real ones. Sports were a big part of a 1940s childhood.  While American boys played Little League and Pop Warner football, British and German children were more likely to play soccer.  While American and British children became Girl Guides, Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls, or Boy Scouts, it was compulsory for German children to join the Hitler Youth.