It is a depiction of Hitler, hand-carved and painted in the late 1930s by an amateur Dutch puppeteer, Isidore (Mike) Oznowicz, and dressed by his Flemish wife, Frances, as they lived in pre-war Belgium. Hitler’s Puppet, an instrument of mockery and defiance, offers a fascinating glimpse into the strong tradition of puppetry in the family of the man who took it from that attic: Frank Oz, one of its creators’ sons, who became one of the best-known puppeteers of the 20th century, bringing Cookie Monster, Bert, Miss Piggy and others to life through his collaborations with Jim Henson, and later becoming a force in the Star Wars films, voicing Yoda. The puppet will be on public display for the first time later this month at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Oz’s father was drawn to puppetry from the day, as an 11-year-old boy, he passed a street show of oversized, colorful dolls from Sicily in Antwerp. “As a kid, I was interested in three-dimensional things,” Oznowicz told The San Francisco Chronicle in 1990. After arriving in Oakland in 1951, Oz’s parents founded the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild, and the family living room became a gathering place for puppeteers and enthusiasts from all over the region. Oz learned how to string puppets from his father and as a teenager earned $25 an hour doing puppet shows and served as an apprentice puppeteer at Children’s Fairyland, an amusement park. But Oz – who parlayed his puppetry successes into a long career as an actor and director – never bucked the family tradition. “It was a great pitch for me until I got to 18 and I said, I’m done with this, I don’t want to be a puppeteer,” Oz, 78, said in a recent interview as he sat on a bench. at Riverside Park in New York. “I never wanted to be a puppeteer. I want to be a journalist, actually.” It was a chance meeting with Henson, whom he met at a puppetry convention when he was still a teenager, that changed the course of his life. “I really don’t care for puppets,” said Oz, under the mist of a light June rain. “Not really. And he never did. And Jim showed me how to be successful. Then I got exactly what I didn’t want in the first place, but the joy was working with Jim and the Muppets.” Oz was startled when he encountered the puppet years ago in the attic of his family’s Oakland home — “I thought, ‘Oh my God.’” He brought it to New York where he displayed it, along with seven puppet heads carved by his father, in a museum case in his Upper West Side apartment. The puppet, carved heads and a video interview Frank did with his father before his death in 1998 will be featured in “Oz is for Oznowicz: A Puppet Family’s History,” opening at the Modern Jewish Museum on July 21. (Frank-de-Hollywood’s nickname is “Oz”, but his legal name remains Oznowicz.) The exhibition traces the remarkable history of this puppet and how Isidore, who was Jewish and was born in Amsterdam, and Frances, who was Catholic, fled Antwerp in 1940 as the Nazis advanced and bombs exploded across Belgium. At the urging of Frances’ mother, who feared they would be captured with such a provocative puppet as they tried to outrun the Nazis, they buried the puppet in their yard. “He and mom made a deal that when the bombs fell on Antwerp – and they expected it – they would be ready to go,” said Ronald Oznowicz, 80, who is Frank’s older brother. “They had their bikes ready and their food ready. They had a whole plan and the goal was to get to England.” Isidore and Frances traveled to the south of France, Spain, Morocco and Portugal – the story of their journey is told in the video interview – before settling in England, where Frank and Ronald were born. The family returned to Antwerp after the war and buried the puppet. It was another five years before they got visas and came to the United States. The puppet joined them. (A third child, Jenny, was born after they settled in the United States.) “I have to tell you: This is a son’s memory,” Oz said. “My parents left Belgium in time. But unfortunately, half his family was killed in the gas chambers because they didn’t leave. My father never liked to talk about it. It was very difficult for him.” “All those stories of my mother and father, they were just fairy tales to me,” he said. Indeed, much of this story is murky as it reconstructs the lives of the parents of one of the men who did so much to make the Muppets beloved: Isidore was, by day, a window dresser and sign painter, and Frances became a seamstress. It’s not exactly clear how — or even if — the Hitler puppet was used in performances. This report arose from an accidental event. “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited,” which was first presented at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, was to be transferred this summer to The Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the institution, in keeping with its mission, was looking for ways to place the exhibition in some kind of Jewish context. “I knew that Frank Oz was Jewish, and I wondered if there was some kind of story that Frank would have wanted to tell here,” said Heidi Raben, the museum’s senior curator. Karen Falk, the Henson Collection’s chief archivist, told her about the puppet Oz had retrieved from his parents’ attic, and Raben asked Oz if she could borrow it for this exhibit. “It was such an incredibly inspiring story about resilience and resistance,” Rabben said. “That’s what we’re interested in: What are the ways we can share stories of the Holocaust? We have limited information and it is very selective based on what our parents and grandparents chose to share. How will we make sure we never forget?’ The two exhibits will overlap for a few weeks. the Henson exhibit closes in mid-August. The Hitler puppet is the focus of ‘Oz is for Oznowicz’. The mustache, hair and eyebrows are painted black. Isidore carved the mustache so that it protruded from the puppet. A Nazi armband is tied around the left arm. No attempt was made to restore the Hitler puppet or any of the heads. they are presented as Frank found them. The puppet’s right leg is exposed due to a tear in the uniform. Given its subject matter and the sensibilities of a museum dedicated to dealing with questions of Jewish history, “Oz is for Oznowicz,” carries a warning for attendees: “This exhibit contains a puppet of Adolf Hitler that may be disturbing to some. audience. Our intention in displaying this object is to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive through the objects and first-hand stories of those who experienced its persecution, and to encourage discussion and education about the continuing horrors of anti-Semitism and authoritarianism today.” . Isidore’s sons remember him as a man of great humor with a keen political sensibility and said it was in his nature to use humor and parody for political effect. But once they returned to the United States and started their lives as immigrants in a new country, they tried to put that chapter of their lives behind them. After they met at a convention of the National Puppeteers of America, Jim Henson asked Frank Oz to come to New York and work part-time with him for six months in 1963. He stayed with Henson until 1986. Oz said he jumped at the chance to lend his parents’ works to the Henson exhibit. “I want to show how people can express themselves in a positive way during a war – and make fun of people in other ways,” he said. “I just want to honor my parents. I want people to see how lucky we are right now, even in the terrible situation we’re in right now.”
