Ruth Sternfeld was born in Berlin in 1939. Sternfeld was counted as a Mischling (a German term used by the Third Reich to denote a person who was only partially Aryan), despite the fact that both of her maternal grandparents were Jewish. Although she was considered a “Mischling of first degree,” Sternfeld remained in Berlin throughout the war and, despite her precarious status, managed to survive. Sternfeld was eight years old when Vishniac took this photograph in the Schlachtensee Displaced Persons camp as she prepared to immigrate, probably to the United States or to Palestine.