Lili Wronker collection about the Jewish community in Sosúa, Dominican Republic

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.