[Sara, sitting in bed in a basement dwelling, with stenciled flowers above her head, Warsaw]

Vishniac documented the basement dwellings of Warsaw using the scant natural light that trickled through a few narrow, high windows, necessitating that he shoot during the day, when adults were often out looking for work or peddling their wares and children were sometimes the only inhabitants indoors. This photograph of Sara, one of Vishniac’s most iconic images, was reproduced on charity tins, or tzedakah boxes, and circulated throughout France by Jewish social service organizations, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) in the late 1930s.