Lili Wronker collection about the Jewish community in Sosúa, Dominican Republic
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Lili Wronker
Biographical History
Lilli Wronker (1924-2019) was born Lili Cassel in Berlin to dermatologist Josef Cassel and Edith Basch Cassel. Following Kristallnacht, her parents sent her and her sister Eve to England, where they attended a boarding school in Haslemere, Surrey. They reunited with their parents and immigrated to the United States in 1940, and settled in New York. She married Erich Wronker (1921-1997) in 1943 and worked as a calligrapher, illustrator, and graphic designer. Her father’s sister died in Theresienstadt and her husband’s grandparents died in Auschwitz. Wronker’s interest in Sosúa developed when she met some of the original Jewish settlers while visiting her daughter, Rona, who lived there for several years. The Jewish community in Sosúa was established following the Evian conference in 1938, when Trujillo agreed to bring 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe to the Dominican Republic, although fewer than 650 ultimately arrived. The first Jewish settlers in 1940 began farming before discovering they could be more successful with meat and dairy products, leading to the development of dairy, meat, and supermarket cooperatives.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received these papers from Lili Wronker in November, 2000.
Scope and Content
The Lili Wronker collection about the Jewish community in Sosúa, Dominican Republic contains commemorative stamps, food packaging, photographic materials, printed materials, and reports documenting the establishment of the Sosúa Jewish community in the Dominican Republic and the town’s development into a tourist destination. The commemorative stamps were created in 1960. Three depict an aerial view of the Sosúa coastline and two depict four of the original Jewish refugee children, Naomi Neumann, Caroline Papernik, Susanna Tauber, and Teresa Hirschfeld. Food packaging includes a salami wrapper from Embutidos Exquisito and a milk wrapper for Sosúa Leche and chocolate milk container from for Chocolatina Sosúa by Productos Sosúa. Photographic materials include prints and slide depicting Sosúa and its synagogue, cemetery, and community house, aerial views of the town and coastline, a group of some of the original Jewish refugees who formed the community, and the commemorative stamps. Printed materials include newsletters from the planning committee for the 50th anniversary reunion, clippings describing Sosúa’s settlement and development into a tourist destination, and a visitor’s guide annotated to show the residences of some of the original Jewish settlers. Reports include a photocopy of a 1949 report on the Sosúa settlement by the Dominican Republic Settlement Association and a partial photocopy of Hyman Kisch’s “Sosúa: The Golden Cage.”
System of Arrangement
The Lili Wronker collection about the Jewish community in Sosúa, Dominican Republic is arranged as five series: I. Commemorative stamps, 1960, II. Food packaging, approximately 1980s, III. Photographic materials, 1969-1989, IV. Printed materials, 1981-1990, and V. Reports, approximately 1990
Subjects
- Sosúa (Dominican Republic)
- Agricultural colonies--Dominican Republic--Sosúa.
- Jewish refugees--Dominican Republic--Sosúa.
- Jews--Dominican Republic--Sosúa.
- Dominican Republic--Emigration and immigration--20th century.
- Land settlement--Dominican Republic--Sosúa.
Genre
- Document
- Postage stamps.
- Containers for storing or transporting food.
- Photographs.