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In Memoriam

Vivian Zinkin

1911 – 1947

Accounting Secretary, Bergen-Belsen DP Camp

When Vivian Zinkin applied to JDC in 1946, she stated that she was ready to work overseas in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps. Her application was accepted, and she was assigned to the accounting department in the DP Camp at Bergen-Belsen. Zinkin was responsible for office records and financial and statistical tables. After her untimely death, Edward M.M. Warburg, Chairman of the JDC, wrote, “Her qualities of loyalty and devotion to the distressed Jewish people of Europe will long be remembered.”

Extended Profile

Vivian Zinkin was born in New York in 1911 and worked as a legal secretary during World War II. In early 1946, she applied for an overseas position with the JDC. In her application she wrote, “I am wholeheartedly interested in the rehabilitation of the people who have borne the brunt of this battle for liberty and freedom. They are the ones who have justly earned it.” Vivian Zinkin’s application was accepted, and she was assigned to the accounting department in the DP Camp at Bergen-Belsen, located in the British Zone in Germany, where she was responsible for office records and financial and statistical tables. She urged her friends in the United States to send layettes and clothing for the babies and under-privileged children of the Bergen-Belsen Camp. Whenever such a package arrived from the States, “she would open it with genuine pleasure and while unpacking it, she joyously announced its contents to our welfare worker who was present.” After her untimely death, Edward M.M. Warburg, Chairman of the JDC, wrote, “Her qualities of loyalty and devotion to the distressed Jewish people of Europe will long be remembered.”

Sources

JDC Archives.

New York Times, June 5, 1947.