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2 to 5 October 2025

The map reading room in Leipzig will be closed from October 2 to October 5.

News from the exile collections

Ausschnitt der illustrierten Titelseite des London Diary von Lili Cassel. Ein zeichnendes Mädchen sitzt zwischen Wolken vermutlich auf einem Sperrballon zur Abwehr von Luftangriffen. Die Illustrationen sind mit Tusche und Wasserfarben gemalt.

Lili Cassel Wronker: A London Diary, 1939-1940

London diary London diary

The German Exile Archive 1933–1945 has received documents from Lili Cassel Wronker.

The bundle of documents left to the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 by Lili Cassel Wronker primarily contains interesting documents from her exile in England. Born on 5 May 1924 in Berlin, Lili Cassel, who attended the private Jewish school Waldschule Kaliski from 1936 to 1938, emigrated to England in 1938 with her sister Evi but without her parents.

Both children attended Stoatley Rough School in Haslemere, Surrey. Her pre-mortem legacy includes letters written by the children to their father in London and to their mother and grandmother in Brussels during this time. The letters describe the girls’ school and everyday life in England. A visit to London by her father Josef Cassel is the subject of her unpublished manuscript “A London Diary”. The young author describes her experiences in the metropolis on 23 handwritten, richly illustrated pages. In 1940, the family together reached the USA, where Lili studied art at institutions including Washington Irving High School and the Art Students League in New York and worked as an illustrator. One of her posts included that of book jacket designer for the World Publishing Company. The first book to contain her illustrations, the children’s book “The Rainbow Mother Goose” (Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1947) was acclaimed by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the "Fifty Best Books of the Year". Besides working as an illustrator, she also taught calligraphy, for example at the New School for Social Research and at Johns University in Queens, NY. In 1952, she married Erich Wronker, who had emigrated from Frankfurt am Main with his family and whose family had previously own the Wronker chain of department stores, which was “Aryanised” in 1934. They worked together on numerous projects and operated their own hand press. Lili Cassel Wronker has illustrated a large number of books. Her work has been displayed at exhibitions in the USA, England, France and Israel, and she has received numerous awards.

Pagination

Content

  1. Ruth Weiss (1924 – 2025) – In memoriam
  2. Dr. Vincent C. Frank Steiner (1930–2025) – In memoriam
  3. Hans Günter Flieg (1923–2024) – in memoriam
  4. Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer (1928–2024) – in memoriam
  5. Guy Stern (1922–2023) – in memoriam
  6. Trude Simonsohn (1921-2022) – in memoriam
  7. “Child Emigration from Frankfurt am Main. Stories of rescue, loss and remembrance”
  8. Questionnaires as a source for researching German-speaking exile – using Alfred Kantorowicz as an example
  9. Professor Dr. John M. Spalek (1928-2021) in memoriam
  10. Lieselotte Maas (1937-2020) – In memoriam
  11. Ruth Klüger (1931-2020) – in memoriam
  12. "What should I cook?" Recipes from the German Exile Archive 1933-1945
  13. Hellmut Stern (1928-2020) - In memoriam
  14. Thomas Mann: German listeners! – listening station on the topic of exile outside our Frankfurt building
  15. Publication of exhibition catalogue “Exile. Experience and Testimony”
  16. Focusing on the topic of exile – the history magazine "Damals" ("Yesteryear") is published in collaboration with the German Exile Archive 1933–1945
  17. Dora Schindel (1915–2018) – In memoriam
  18. Werner Berthold (1921–2017) – In memoriam
  19. Rolf Kralovitz (1925 - 2015) – In memoriam
  20. Buddy Elias – In memoriam
  21. Arts in Exile – virtual exhibition and network
  22. Brigitte Kralovitz-Meckauer (1925–2014) – in memoriam
  23. Ludwig Werner Kahn - 100th birthday
  24. Goethe Medal and honorary membership of the Gesellschaft für Exilforschung e.V. awarded to Professor John M. Spalek
  25. "Nestor of German finance" - Fritz Neumark's 110th birthday
  26. Book donation for the German National Library
  27. "A prisoner of Stalin and Hitler" - 20 years since the death of Margarete Buber-Neumann
  28. The founder of futurology – the 100th birthday of Ossip K. Flechtheim
  29. On the death of lyricist Emma Kann
  30. Nestor of exile research 1933–1945 in the USA - the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. John M. Spalek
  31. Pre-mortem legacy of politologist John G. Stoessinger in the German Exile Archive 1933-1945
  32. Lili Cassel Wronker: A London Diary, 1939-1940
  33. Chronicler of her century – 90th birthday of Anja Lundholm
  34. Reichsausbürgerungskartei
  35. Hans Gustav Güterbock
  36. Geneviève Pitot: The Mauritian-Shekel

Last changes: 11.09.2025

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