WW2 Fuhrer Toys

A real little Hitler: The toy Fuhrer model that was made for German children to play with during World War Two

• Rare toy revealed by Jerry Beaulier on Antiques Roadshow in Scotland
• He was sent the toy by his father, U.S. Private Jerome Beaulier, at the end of World War Two

By Emma Clark
PUBLISHED: 11:58 GMT, 26 October 2012 | UPDATED: 15:22 GMT, 26 October 2012
A rare toy figure of Adolf Hitler made for German children to play with has been revealed by the son of a World War Two soldier for the first time.
The figure of the vicious dictator was part of a collection of toys U.S Private Jerome Beaulier bought at a toy shop in Germany at the end of the war in exchange for cigarettes and chocolate bars.
He posted them back to his five-year-old son Jerry, who received them in 1945 and has kept hold of them ever since.

The German toy shows Adolf Hitler figure seated in the front passenger seat of an army jeep alongside three German soldiers

The four-inch tall Hitler figure is seated in the front passenger seat of a German army jeep alongside three soldiers.
Other toys included in the set are an anti-aircraft gun, several field guns, another truck with a huge search light attached and a First World War German biplane.

 

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The original collection included six figures of Hitler but only one remains today as Pvt Beaulier destroyed the other five by taking pot-shots at them with an air-rifle.
His son, Lieutenant Commander Jerry Beaulier, 72, from St Andrews, Scotland, took them along to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow when the programme visited his home town.

The Fuhrer pictured in 1944, a year before he was defeated in World War Two

He said: ‘Dad was a half-track driver in the war and had parked up in a town on the German-Austria border when he found the toy shop.
‘He sent them back to me in 1945 and I have had them since then.
‘I remember playing with them as a child and I got a great deal of pleasure out of them.
‘There were half-a-dozen Adolf Hitler figures to begin with.
‘After the war my dad used to have my uncle round and they would set the Hitler figures up and use them for shooting practice with their air guns. Mum would go mad.
‘My dad didn’t talk too much about the war and when he did it was usually light-hearted.
‘This one is the only Hitler figure I have left. I had another of him standing in a car doing the Nazi salute but dad shot it.’
Pvt Beaulier served in the 9th Armoured Division of the US Army from 1943 until the end of the war.
His son Lt Cdr Beaulier joined the US Navy and served as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War.
He later moved to St Andrews where he lives today.
James Taylor, a researcher at the Imperial War Museum, said: ‘The toys reflected the time in Nazi society.

Jerry Beaulier, left wearing a white top, with expert Hilary Kay, right wearing a blue jacket, with his set of army toys on the Antique's Roadshow

Among the set was a German toy half track with toy soldiers and an AA gun

German toy's showing field guns and searchlights were part of the collection that the young Jerry Beaulier played with

‘Toys of Hitler were common in Germany back then, as well as other well-known figures in the Nazi regime.’
Hilary Kay, an expert from the Antiques Roadshow, said: ‘These toys show the military power of Germany leading up to the Second World War.
‘The figure of Hitler was quite normal and what a young German boy in 1934-5-6-7 leading up to the war, would have wanted.’