Stumbling stone placed Friday , April 11, 2025. Stolperstein street art monument by Gunter Demnig. Rue Marie-Therese 13 , Brussels, Belgium .
Citation info : Sally • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • @1MEMO 20250411
Category: HOLOCAUST
Discoveries Deportation Westerbork Film • 20250224
Utrecht family identification , almost complete…
Almost certainly, three Jewish people have been recognized in the unique Westerbork film from 1944 (1). This time it concerns the 9-year-old boy Israël Wijnschenk, his father Max Wijnschenk, and his grandmother Betje Kokernoot-van Furth, who all lived in Utrecht (Holland).
Last week, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS (2) reported the news from the Utrecht (Dutch) news site Nieuws030 (3) that it is very likely that three people were recognized again in this film made by the Jewish prisoner and filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer showing the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti by train in Camp Westerbork on May 19, 1944.
Image researcher Koen Hulsbos — who previously identified an Amsterdam couple in this deportation train (4) — thought he recognized the young Israël Wijnschenk, a pupil at the time of the Joodse (Jewish) School Utrecht, and presented this to Victor Frederik, researcher of the Joodse School (5,6). The boy, the man, and the woman seem to belong together, and were recognized from family photos, also by family members.
It is certain that Max and his wife Chel (not in the images) returned to Utrecht after the war, their children Israël and his sister Kitty were murdered. Grandma Betje was also gassed in Auschwitz.
A portrait of Israël Wijnschenk is shown at the site of Joods Monument (7).
According to the transport list, there were two other children in that wagon, Joseph Beugeltas (11 years old) and Manfred Studzinsky (7 years old). Joseph Beugeltas appeared to have blond hair, and could not have been it (6). To be completely sure, the researchers are still looking for a photo of Manfred Studzinsky, for comparison…
Notes
1) Deportation Westerbork Film • Edition 2021 | 20210719 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944, courtesy of NIOD | Sound and Vision . URL https://settela.com/2021/07/19/deportation-westerbork-film-20210719/
2) Utrechters ‘vrijwel zeker’ herkend op Westerborkfilm uit 1944. NOS Nieuws Feb 22, 2025. URL https://nos.nl/l/2556858
3) Nieuwe herkenningen in Westerborkfilm ‘bijna zeker’. Jim Terlingen | Nieuws030 . URL https://www.nieuws030.nl/hist030rie/drie-nieuwe-herkenningen-in-westerborkfilm-zo-goed-als-zeker/
4) Amsterdam couple found in Westerbork film • 20241223 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/12/23
5) Joodse school Utrecht. Website. URL https://joodseschoolutrecht.nl
6) Israël op Westerborkfilm? Victor Frederik- Web site Joodse school Utrecht. (Accessed 20250224). URL https://joodseschoolutrecht.nl/nl/Verhalen-over-leerlingen/Kitty-en-Israel-Wijnschenk/Israel-op-Westerborkfilm/
7) Portrait of Israël Wijnschenk. Site Joods Monument. URL https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/122045/israël-wijnschenk
Citation info : Discoveries Deportation Westerbork Film • 20250224 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2025/02/24/
Amsterdam couple found in Westerbork film • 20241223
The Dutch national broadcaster NOS (1) and the local RTV Drenthe (2) reported this morning (23 Dec 2024) that 2 more people have been recognized in the Westerbork film.
It is the Amsterdam couple Marcus Pels and Hendrika Brandon. They were identified by the image researcher Koen Hulsbos – volunteer working at the Behind the Star project of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies .
The Jewish photographer and filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer, while a prisoner in the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, was commissioned by camp commander Albert Gemmeker to make film recordings for the Westerbork film in the spring of 1944, featuring images of a deportation train.
The NOS broadcast referred to images in the first published Westerbork film (3)The film can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. After just under 5 minutes 🔗
a man with a hat can be seen looking into the camera with a smile, and next to him a woman with black, slightly wavy hair can be seen from behind. The same couple appears again at 6 minutes 🔗 . It turned out to be the Amsterdam couple Marcus Pels and Hendrika Brandon.
Pels & Brandon Clip 1 & 2
Also available on YouTube is the more recent second Westerborkfilm (4). This 2021 edition has the recently found original camera rolls of the deportation transport (Reel E198), with higher quality images of the couple.
That’s it
Hulsbos had already had photos of Marcus Pels and Hendrika Brandon in his collection of images of prisoners who were transported on that day – May 19, 1944 – when Breslauer films the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz.
“I’ve seen the film many times, but at one point I thought, ‘Hey, this couple is on screen twice.’ I had never really noticed that before,” says Hulsbos.
Hulsbos then compared the film footage with his photos. “And then I thought: that’s it,” says the amateur film historian.
Marcus Pels was murdered immediately after arriving in Auschwitz. Hendrika Brandon survived the war, as did their daughter and son, who were in hiding with a foster family. Katy (Keetje, 86 years old) and Philip (83) are still alive and live in Canada. They were shown the film footage and confirmed that they were their parents.
“They don’t remember their father. So to actually see images of him, to see him just walking around alive, there are no words to describe it,” granddaughter Lisa Kaufman said as a family spokesperson. “It was very special to see my grandmother, who I grew up with.”
Anonym | Girl with the headscarf …
In the Westerbork film, Hendrika looks at the woman on the stretcher, who was recognized in the 1990s through her suitcase as Frouwke Kroon, and thus was the key to identifying this transport and thus also to the name of the anonymous girl with the headscarf between the wagon doors – Settela (5,6).
Deportation Breslauer family
Earlier this year it was reported that filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer had also filmed two of his children , Stefan , and Ursula Breslauer in the Westerborkfilm at the farm (7).
Werner Rudolf Breslauer , his wife Bella Weihsmann, sons Stefan and Max Michael (Mischa), and daughter Ursula were deported later in 1944 from Westerbork to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Only Ursula survived.
Notes
1) Twee mensen herkend in Westerborkfilm: ‘Kan niet missen’ | NOS Nieuws • Dec 23, 2024 09:45 | URL https://nos.nl/artikel/2549390-twee-mensen-herkend-in-westerborkfilm-kan-niet-missen
2) Nieuwe ontdekking in Westerbork-film: Amsterdams echtpaar krijgt gezicht | RTV Drenthe • Dec 23, 2024 07:10 | URL https://www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/17091818/nieuwe-ontdekking-in-westerbork-film-amsterdams-echtpaar-krijgt-gezicht
3) Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2019/06/05/westerbork-film-full-version-rvd/
4) Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2022/03/02/westerbork-film-🎦-2021-complete-remastered-edition-20220302/
5) ANONYM | Girl with the headscarf … | 20210416 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2021/04/16/anonym-girl-with-the-headscarf-20210416/
6) ANONIEM | Meisje met hoofddoekje … | 20210417 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2021/04/17/anoniem-meisje-met-hoofddoekje-20210417/
7) Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/03/05
Citation info : Amsterdam couple found in Westerbork film • 20241223 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/12/23
In Memoriam Ward Adriaens • 20241119
November 2024. Ward Adriaens Passed Away
by Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media
Ward Adriaens (Mechelen, Belgium) passed away suddenly on the evening of November 15th, 2024. A wonderful man, a freethinker, author, with a passion for living history, especially the resistance, partisans, in World War II, and the founding director in 1995 of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance (JMDR) that opened its doors in 1996. In 2012 the JMDR became the Kazerne Dossin museum, with Ward Adriaens as honorary curator. In 2005 Ward Adriaens launched the Give Them a Face archival project. The portraits of all Jewish, Roma and Sinti deportees which passed through the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks, transit camp, Mechelen) in 1942-1944, were scanned to create the “Give Them a Face” portrait collection. All around 20,000 photos in the Give Them a Face portrait collection are now part of the commemoration wall – a permanent exhibition – at the Kazerne Dossin museum.
In 2009 , I first encountered the Transport XX installation in Brussels, and met Ward Adriaens’ team of the Give Them a Face project in the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance in Mechelen, Belgium (1,2).
Next , Ward Adriaens participated in our 2012 documentary Transport XX to Auschwitz (3).
Recently, May 2024, Ward Adriaens’ opening speech at the TRANSPORT XX installation in Mechelen in 2007, was posted in the ‘Miracles’ project at Miracles•Media (4).
Quote
“…Let us clearly understand that this is the fundamental basis of racism: persecuted because we have a mother. We all have parents and many amongst us have children. In order to protect them it is essential that we do not give an inch to racism. Everyone of us will come under threat should the policy makers be influenced by racism…”
We lost Ward Adriaens… way too soon…
Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media
Notes
1. Encounter • Miracles Docs #1 • Miracles•Media • 20240419 • URL https://miracles.media/2024/04/19/20240419/
2. Faces • Miracles Photo Story #1 • Miracles•Media • 20240419 • URL https://miracles.media/2024/04/19/faces-miracles-photo-story-1-20240419/
3. Ward Adriaens’ interview by the dutch reporters Piet de Blaauw & Aart Zeeman (Dutch NCRV-Netwerk broadcast, 13 April 2005, NL1) from the documentary ‘Transport XX to Auschwitz’ – a film by Karen Lynne & Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg • In : Documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” • Miracles•Media • 20130419 • URL (retrieved 20241119) https://michelvanderburg.com/2013/04/19/transport-xx-to-auschwitz/
4. Speech by Ward Adriaens, Curator of The JMDR, Friday 20th April 2007. In : TRANSPORT XX installation Mechelen • Miracles•Media • 20240518
Citation info : In Memoriam Ward Adriaens • Miracles•Media • 20241119
1935 Sound Film Amsterdam’s Great Synagogue Choir • 20241025
Friday, 15 Nov 1935 • NIW (1)
“Sound recording at the Great Synagogue
The jubilee of the N.I.H.S., which has attracted interest in our community in many circles, has also attracted the attention of Polygoon, the well-known sound journalists. They wanted to record something specific of this jubilee and in honor of the jubilee on the sound film and insert it as part of the cinema newsreels this week.
Chief cantor I. E. Maroko and the synagogue choir, led by his well-known conductor S. H. Englander, were prepared to perform a synagogue song. And so the recording took place last Wednesday evening in the Great Synagogue. When we came to take a look at the Synagogue, which was already decorated for the occasion, at 8 o’clock, all preparations had been made. A number of lamps, together 25,000 candles strong, provided sufficient lighting. The choir sang Psalm 118, while Mr. Maroko sang the solos. The recording, which was made under the direction of the popular Polygoon man Jo Levi, and in which Max Tak was present, will certainly attract the interest of the cinema-loving public and for those who do not regularly go to the cinemas, we can certainly recommend a visit this time.”
This NIW 1935 news (1) describes the ‘sound film’ was made Wednesday 13 Nov 1935 under the direction of Polygoon man Jo Levi. Below the ‘sound film’ and first part of my description, as posted Aug 20, 2019 (2).
November 1935, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the NIHS Jewish Community of Amsterdam (orthodox Ashkenazi congregation started 1635) the dutch film factory Polygoon brought this unique cinema sound newsreel of the Amsterdam Choir of the Great Synagogue led by choirmaster Samuel Henri (Sam) Englander, with a solo perfomance by chazzan (cantor) Izrael Eljasz Maroko in the Great Synagogue (inauguration building 1671) – now home to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, Holland (2).
Notes
1. Today I found this article on the Polygoon ‘sound recording’ (2) in the dutch weekly ‘Nieuw Israelietisch weekblad’ (Transl: New Israelite Weekly) of Friday, November 15, 1935. URL Delpher.nl (retrieved 20241025) .
Dutch transcript
Geluidsopname ter Groote Synagoge
Het jubileum der N.I.H.S., dat de belangstelling in vele kringen op onze gemeente heeft gevestigd, heeft ook de aandacht getrokken van Polygoon, de bekende geluidsjournalisten. Men wilde n.l. iets specifieks van dit jubileum en ter eere van het jubileum op de geluidsfilm vastleggen en dit deze week als onderdeel in de bioscoopjournaals inlasschen.
Oppervoorzanger I. E. Maroko en het sjoelkoor, onder leiding van zijn bekenden dirigent S. H. Englander, werden bereid gevonden om een synagogaal gezang ten gehoore te brengen. En zoo vond Woensdagavond j.I. de opname plaats in de Groote Synagoge. Toen wij om 8 uur een kijkje kwamen nemen in de reeds in feesttooi gestoken Synagoge, waren alle toebereidselen getroffen. Een aantal lampen, tezamen 25.000 kaarsen sterk, zorgde voor voldoende belichting.
Het koor zong Psalm 118, terwijl de heer Maroko de soli zong. De opname, welke onder leiding van den populairen Polygoonman Jo Levi geschiedde, werd vervaardigd en waarbij o.a. Max Tak tegenwoordig was, zal zeer zeker de belangstelling van het bioscoopminnend publiek trekken en zij, die niet geregeld in de cinema’s komen, kunnen wij ditmaal zeker een gang daarheen aanbevelen.
2. Amsterdam’s Choir of the Great Synagogue 1935 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • 20190830 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2019/08/30/amsterdams-choir-of-the-great-synagogue-1935/
Citation info : 1935 Sound Film Amsterdam’s Great Synagogue Choir • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • 20241025
Documentary “The Jews of Corfu” • 20241015
October 15, 2024 — Watch free online the full documentary “The Jews of Corfu” – a film by Mirjan Gjergjevica & Maria Boua (1) .
The Jews of Corfu – Review
The Jews of Corfu – a population group that was an important part of the island, contributed to the formation of its history. But the tragic events that befell them were added to the black page of human history.
The film The Jews of Corfu (2021) is a powerful documentary by Mirjan Gjergjevica (direction, cinematography, editing, production) & Maria Boua (script, music, sound, production) with narration by Yannis Andriotis and stories told by Zaharias Matathias • Linos Sousis • Nina Vital.
Powerful — both visually and the sound — filmed in an innovative way, combining ambient sound and stories told outdoors with the Mediterranean background, in public spaces, the streets, and Corfu synagogue – with an excellent film score – that is especially impressive how it manages to accompany the viewer in scenes of holocaust atrocities.
The history of the Corfiot Jews – a mixture of Pugliese (from south Italy) and Romaniote (from Greece) is told in vivid detail from the Middle Ages to today.
I watched this fast paced film twice, last premiere weekend, to fully grasp the whole picture ~ Michel van der Burg – Monday , March 14, 2022 (2).
Film festivals & education & online
The free public release of the film was announced last Saturday (Oct 12, 2024) by filmmaker Mirjan Gjergjevica (3) :
“It is with great pleasure and honor that we present to public our documentary, The Jews of Corfu. This work has been screened in many festivals around the world, from America to Australia, and has been lovingly embraced by schools and universities. Now, we are happy to share this freely with you all.
I warmly thank all the main contributors who contributed to the realization of this documentary: Maria Boua, Christiana Latsa, Yiannis Andriotis, Anthi Kyrtsoglou, Giorgos Zumbos and all those who helped directly or indirectly.
We hope this documentary continues to convey its message to even more people and be a way to learn about the history of the Jews of Corfu.”
Mirjan added in an update Oct 13, 2024 :
“We would like to clarify that the present publication of the documentary is not related to the recent war events that are taking place. We condemn all forms of violence and conflict, and we strongly advocate peace and reconciliation among the peoples. “
The Jews of Corfu Poster • Link facebook page The Jews of Corfu Documentary – https://www.facebook.com/thejewsofcorfudoc
Notes
1. Documentary “The Jews of Corfu”, 2021.
- Directed by: Mirjan Gjergjevica (MirjanFilms)
- Music: Maria Boua
- Interviews: Anthi Kyrtsoglou
- Story: Yiannis Andriotis
- Historical Archive Research: Maria Boua, Christiana Latsa, Giorgos Zumbos. Production: Maria Boua, Mirjan Films @2021
- Premiere: The film premiered at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece — March 10-20 , 2022
- YouTube premiere Oct 12, 2024 – URL https://youtu.be/wjn7MziqJp4
2. Review The Jews of Corfu • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • 20220314 • URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2022/03/14/review-the-jews-of-corfu/
3. The Jews of Corfu Documentary. Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thejewsofcorfudoc
4. The Jews of Corfu – trailer
5. More info : The Jews of Corfu: A Documentary About a Forgotten Community for Centuries. (May 4, 2022) Christos Paridis. URL https://en.kis.gr/index.php/koinotites/kerkyras/kerkira-eideisis/2022-05-04-09-48-09
Citation info : Documentary “The Jews of Corfu” • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • 20241015 • URL 1-memo•com
Radical Right Front • 20241011
Founding of the ‘Harzburger Front’ in Bad Harzburg, October 11, 1931 – an alliance between right-wing, nationalist, conservative elements and Hitler, to attempt to topple the Weimar government of chancellor Heinrich Brüning. The field service on the Kaltental-Wiese (meadow) in Bad Harzburg, with the Berlin Protestant preacher Bruno Doehring, on the platform (pulpit).
The Nazi Party delegation during the field service on the Kaltental-Wiese (meadow) in Bad Harzburg. First row , left to right:
Gerret Korsemann (SA-leader), Heinrich Himmler (SS Chief), Ernst Röhm (SA Chief), Franz Ritter von Hörauf, Hermann Göring (Reichsmarschall, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, Prime Minister of Prussia), Bernhard Rust (Prussian Minister of Culture).
Citation info : Radical Right Front • Miracles•Media • 20241011 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2024/10/11/
