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Portrait of members of the Wisgardisky family seated around a table during an engagement party for Yente Wisgardisky and Berl Berk.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 01501
Portrait of members of the Wisgardisky family seated around a table during an engagement party for Yente Wisgardisky and Berl Berk. Yente Wisgardisky is the aunt of the donor, Henia Lewin. Pictured standing behind, from left to right are: Melech; Jona and Gita; unknown; and Hershel Wisgardisky. Seated from right to left are: four members of the Apzig family (two daughters and their parents, who were all killed by the Germans); the donor's grandparents; Berl Berk; and Yente Wisgardisky. The man seated third from the left has been tentatively identified as Josel (Josef) Berk, father of Berl Berk.

Portrait of members of the Wisgardisky family seated around a table during an engagement party for Yente Wisgardisky and Berl Berk.

Yente Wisgardisky is the aunt of the donor, Henia Lewin. Pictured standing behind, from left to right are: Melech; Jona and Gita; unknown; and Hershel Wisgardisky. Seated from right to left are: four members of the Apzig family (two daughters and their parents, who were all killed by the Germans); the donor's grandparents; Berl Berk; and Yente Wisgardisky. The man seated third from the left has been tentatively identified as Josel (Josef) Berk, father of Berl Berk.

Date
1938
Locale
Kaunas, Lithuania
Variant Locale
Kauen
Kovno
Kowno
Photo Designation
LIFE BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST -- Lithuania -- Family/Friends/Portraits
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Henia Wisgardisky Lewin

About This Photograph

Biography
Henia Wisgardisky (now Henia Lewin) is the daughter of Jona and Gita (Salat) Wisgardisky from Kovno, Lithuania. In the summer of 1941 soon after the German invasion of Lithuania, the Wisgardisky family was forced into the Kovno ghetto. During the Children's Action of 1942, Henia was hidden in a secret room that her father built in a pantry in their apartment. Later she was smuggled out of the ghetto and placed with the Stankiewicz family. Jonas Stankiewicz had worked as the foreman in Jona Wisgardisky's chemical plant before the war, and had taken it over after the occupation. After successfully securing a hiding place for their daughter, the Wisgardiskys fled from the ghetto. They found refuge on a potato farm, where they lived in a root cellar. After the war they recovered Henia from the Stankiewicz family and made their way to Germany. For several years they lived in the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp before emigrating to Palestine. Later the family moved to Canada.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: Henia Wisgardisky Lewin
 
Record last modified: 2018-04-13 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1069990