From 1929 to 1932, he worked on a sugar plantation in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

[3] In 1932, he attended Bauhaus Dessau in Germany before the schools closure, studying with photographer Walter Peterhans.

Due to the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer, an institute enforced by the German Nazis that required creative professionals to register their activities, Guermonprez closed his company Co-op 2 in 1942 in protest.

[6] After his conditional release, he and his Jewish wife, Trude Jalowetz, went into hiding with the help of the Dutch resistance.

They fled to Maria Helena Friedlander (nee Bruhn), a German woman, wife of Henri Friedlaender.