They sort a unique collection of Swedish wooden toys

It's easy to lose your way in all the passages and rooms. On the walls of the archives hang signs and posters, there are display cases with toys, shelves full of books and catalogues of all the products through the years.

Furthest in is a room with long rows of shelves filled with wooden toys from the beginning of the 20th century until today.

– This is probably the biggest and most complete collection of wooden toys in the world, there are not many manufacturers who have a production that goes so far back in time, says Ann Häljesgård, curator of the museum.

– It's very, very exciting.

She took up her position as curator two years ago.

– I saw straight away that the archives are a hidden treasure. We have perhaps about ten years before everything disappears, before people who worked here and can tell us about it, are no longer with us.

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Rami Iskif takes out a tray with wooden hens. .When he swings it gently round, the hens peck the tray with their bills.

– This is from 1914, he tells us.

He shows us Mickey Mouse and the Mexican clown, the first toy that could be taken to pieces and reassembled, from 1952.

Did you play with Brio toys?

– Yes, and I had a Brio pram in blue denim, he says.

In May Rami Iskif and Safanna Krayem, both from Syria, found jobs as extra workers and assistant archivists. At that time Rami Iskif had been out of work for eighteen months. He has a master's degree in biomedicine. Because of corona he was unable to find any trainee post, but he applied for a job as assistant archivist.

– It's very good here, he says.

– After six years I've got into the labour market at last. I don't want just to sit around at home and pick up a social assistance allowance.

Saffana studied English for two years in Syria. If she wants to study English in Sweden she must start all over again.

– In that case I'd rather take a two-year course as a works technician at Högskolan Kristianstad. But that must wait until later – I have four children, she says.

The two of them work alongside Brioveteranerna – people who used to work at Brio – and Regionmuseet.

– They're very good at sorting and putting things in order, it's highly qualified work, says Ann Häljesgård.

– When we came, it was chaotic, says Rami Iskif.

– You have to focus, look at details, boxes, in catalogues and compare. Are there toys like this in other models, from other years? he says.

When will you have finished?

– Perhaps we'll be able to finish our work with wooden toys this year. But then we have all the other collections, Barbie, Märklin trains, and the company archives. I think it might take five or six years.

– Most museums never get things completed, says Ann Häljesgård.