[Willy Lefkowitz and Martin Grünpeter constructing a foundry, Werkdorp Nieuwesluis, Wieringermeer, the Netherlands]
Willy Lefkowitz, left, was forcibly removed from the Werkdorp when it was closed by the Nazis in 1941. Along with the majority of the Werkdorp's remaining inhabitants, Lefkowitz was sent to the Westerbork Transit Camp in northeastern Netherlands, a site where Dutch Jews and Roma were assembled during World War II prior to their deportation to Nazi extermination camps in the east. Of the 107,000 people who passed through Westerbork—among them Anne Frank and her family—only 5,200 survived, including Lefkowitz, who immigrated to the United States. He is believed to have died in Brooklyn in 2001.
Martin Grünpeter, right, a German Jew born in 1914, survived World War II and immigrated to Palestine.
For all uses of photographs by Roman Vishniac contact ICP at: vishniac_archive@icp.org.
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