Barbara Bandler and Howard Steinmetz are married

Rafael Trujillo assassinated

Trujillo’s reign grows notoriously bloody throughout the 1950s, though his repression is not felt in Sosúa. Still, political unrest, economic woes, and scandal plague the General’s rule. In May 1961, the embattled dictator is assassinated by a group of conspirators who ambushed his turquoise Chevrolet Bel Air. Trujillo’s death sets off a period of political instability in the Dominican Republic that drives many of the few remaining Jewish residents to emigrate.

Barbara Bandler graduates high school

She and her boyfriend, Howard Steinmetz, make plans to wed, but her father insists she complete her college education before marrying. The two reach an agreement, and Barbara and Howard are married in 1956, after Barbara is accepted to college.

Barbara becomes a U.S. citizen

Just a few months before her 16th birthday, Barbara takes the oath to become a United States citizen.

Sosúa project dwindles

By the late 1940s, only 275 settlers remain in Sosúa, which had once been home to many hundreds more refugees. DORSA’s experiment under Trujillo never becomes a profitable agricultural settlement, though a successful dairy cooperative founded by Jewish immigrants flourishes there for decades.