Portrait of Henia Wisgardisky in the Kovno ghetto holding a doll.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 01548A

Date: 1941 - 1942
Locale: Kaunas, Lithuania
Variant Locale: Kauen
Kovno
Kowno
Photo Designation: GHETTOS (MAJOR) -- KOVNO (Lithuania) -- Children/Youth/Zionist Groups
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Henia Wisgardisky Lewin

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.
Keyword: CHILDREN/YOUTH
CLOSE-UPS
DOLLS
GHETTO/OCCUPATION
JEWS (LITHUANIAN)
KOVNO
TOYS/BALLS/GAMES
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Henia Wisgardisky Lewin

Source Record ID: Collections: 2006.144
: Record last modified: 2001-02-23 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1075066

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