He married in 1931 and moved with his wife Leni to an apartment in Joachimsthaler Straße, where he set up a darkroom as an enthusiastic amateur photographer.
[3] After this trip, his wife Leni, who often assisted him in taking photographs, offered her husband's pictures to various Jewish newspapers.
[4][5] The news that the visas for entry into the USA, which the couple had been trying to obtain since the mid-1930s, were ready arrived the day after the German invasion of Poland.
[6] When Herbert and Leni Sonnenfeld[7] were able to emigrate to New York at the end of 1939, they only took a small part of the paintings they had created in the previous years with them.
Herbert Sonnenfeld had a married brother in New York, and the couple was also supported by the American Jewish Congress, which provided them with an apartment and a photo studio.
Herbert Sonnenfeld was the only photographer to accompany the conference of the Zionist Organization of America at the Biltmore Hotel in New York in May 1942.
She later worked for publications such as the New York Times and Life Magazine, but also for numerous Jewish organizations, and travelled to many countries.