Today 80 years ago, Isabella Weinreb was three months pregnant with Viviane , when she jumped in the night of 19-20 April 1943, around 2AM from the 20th deportation train – Transport XX – from Mechelen direction Auschwitz.
Isabella escaped with a broken wrist , and knocked on the door of this St. Kamillus institute in Bierbeek, where she was helped further on her escape route back home in Brussels. Viviane was born 6 months later at in Brussels.
Viviane, who is now living in the USA, returned this week – on Holocaust Remembrance Day – to the place her mother escaped and saved both their lives, together with photographer Jo Struyven , author Nathalie Strubbe, and documentary filmmaker Michel van der Burg. During the St. Kamillus visit , reporter Tom de Leur made with photographer Dirk Vertommen an interview published April 19, 2023 in the flemish Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad – https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20230418_97055388 – “Vivianes moeder was zwanger van haar toen ze van de trein sprong die haar naar de gaskamers moest leiden”
Yesterday, April 19, 2023 , Viviane Yarom told her story of the escape from Transport XX, at the Study Day on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the 20th convoy presented by the Jewish Museum of Belgium and The Auschwitz Foundation in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels.
In the Jewish Museum of Belgium , the exhibition ‘236 – Land(es)capes from the 20th convoy’ by Jo Struyven and Luc Tuymans, runs until Mon 14 August.
April 19th also the catalog book by Jo Struyven and Daniel Weyssow (Auschwitz Foundation) was published , which includes dutch and french editions of “Escape from Transport XX…born 6 months later” translated from the original english text of a chapter in the ebook published April 19, 2019 : Viviane Yarom-Castegnier & Michel van der Burg. ‘Viviane’s Story: Escape from Transport XX… Born 6 Months Later’. Download available via Miracles.Media.
License info : Viviane’s Story in Belgian Newspaper | 20230420 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode 6394354b-afb1-46ac-b635-2f5d33c15c76
Robert’s shirt with sewn up bullet holes | 20230409 | Miracles•Media | Shirt the 14 year old Robert was wearing when shot in his chest as he jumped April 19, 1943 from the 20th convoy – together with his parents Bertha and Eddy Rottenberg. Detail of the neatly sewn up bullet holes is shown in the bottom-right image. Photo’s taken Nov. 19, 2012 by Audrey Rogers Furfaro and edited by Michel van der Burg (michelvanderburg.com).
Update — A Story of Transport XX – April 19, 1943 – by Audrey Rogers Furfaro | 20230409 | Miracles•Media | Story originally told April 2008 by Audrey Rogers Furfaro, and next posted Nov 2012 at michelvanderburg•com illustrated with the shirt the 14 year old Robert was wearing when shot in his chest as he jumped April 19, 1943 from the 20th convoy – together with his parents Bertha and Eddy Rottenberg.
A new finding – published at the current 236 exhibition in Brussels – is the location were the family escaped – they were numbers 722, 723, and 724. The Rottenberg family jumped close to Houppertingen, just before the site Simon Gronowski jumped, before Borgloon. That map is showing in a recent video of the vernisage of the ‘236’ project:
Croatian subtitles demo in film Transport XX to Auschwitz
Thanks Ministry of Subtitles for contributing today your Croatian subtitles file for use in an international edition of Transport XX to Auschwitz. The Ministry of Subtitles originally provided Croatian subtitles for the ‘Transport XX to Auschwitz’ film screening with projection of both Croatian and English subtitles in Cinema Europa at the 8th Festival of Tolerance – May 2014, Zagreb, Croatia.
From 20 January 2023, the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in partnership with the Auschwitz Foundation, presents the exhibition entitled ‘ 236, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy ‘. It is set up in the museum’s project space and offers an artistic look at an exceptional and forgotten event in the Second World War.
The 20th convoy
At 10 p.m. on April 19, 1943, the 20th convoy departed from the Kazerne Dossin transit camp in Mechelen with 1,631 Jewish deportees in cattle cars, heading for Auschwitz. Thanks to resistance actions, both inside the wagons and from outside, 236 of these deportees managed to jump from that train, that was leading them to extermination. An unique event in Europe under the Nazi administration.
Jo Struyven, photographer
The work of the Belgian photographer Jo Struyven (°Sint-Truiden, 1961) takes us back to these acts of resistance – commemorating the 80th anniversary in 2023 – and gives us a glimpse of the landscapes in which this striking story took place. Taking the perspective of those who jumped off that train, an act for which many of them paid with their lives, Struyven creates a contemporary ‘memorial’ with 19 large ‘nocturnal’ black and white images, and one colour print.
Jo Struyven :
The 20th convoy, heading for the unspeakable “Auschwitz”, crossed the area where I grew up, barely 50 meters from my childhood bedroom — I found out 2 years ago after meeting Simon Gronowski. Ever since, I imagine the distress of the deportees. The destination was unknown to them. Some, sensing the worst, tried to escape it. I wanted to give an account of this border between life and death, between resignation and the impossibility of choosing, and the freedom regained with resistance to the oppressor’s plans.
Works presented by Jo Struyven
Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, 19 black and white prints, 1 color print, 90×60 cm (Private collection – Belgium)
Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th convoy 2020 2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Wijchmaal (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Bierbeek (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Borgloon (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Piringen (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Botzelaer (Private Collection, Belgium)
Luc Tuymans, visual artist
In dialogue with Jo Struyven’s photographs, two works by Belgian visual artist Luc Tuymans (°Mortsel, 1958) evoke the destruction of the Jews and Roma of Europe. Die Wiedergutmachung (The Reparation) depicts body parts – left the eyes of gypsy children who had been experimented on by the Nazis. … images that in its incompleteness, reflect the inability to represent facts and memory .
Works presented by Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans, Our New Quarters, 1986, Oil on canvas, 80,5 x 120 cm (MMK – Germany) (Photo Ben Blackwell, courtesy David Zwirner, New York, London)Luc Tuymans, Die Wiedergutmachung, 1989, Oil on cardboard, mounted on plywood, Oil on canvas; diptych, 36,6 x 43 cm, 39,4 x 51,8 cm, courtesy: Private collection (Photo Studio Luc Tuymans)
Art after the Shoah
“Writing a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric”, wrote German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in 1949. Through two contemporary perspectives from the visual arts, this exhibition seeks to address this question of the (im)possibility of art after the Shoah in a new way.
Testimonies & Catalogue
This exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue book edited by Daniel Weyssow and Jo Struyven and published by the Auschwitz Foundation entitled Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy (press release on April 19, 2023), as well as an educational space presenting the testimonies from interviews and archives of convoy escapees.
Info+ ( & Français | Nederlands)
236 Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy Jo Struyven / Luc Tuymans Exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels, Belgium 20 January – 14 August 2023 Brussels Website https://www.mjb-jmb.org
Video report : Vernissage ‘236’ Land(es)capes 20th convoy
Thursday January 19th, 2023, the vernissage of the photo exhibition 236 — Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy was opened with speeches by Philippe Blondin, President of the Jewish Museum, and by Pierre-Yves Jeholet , Minister-President of the Government of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels. Next, the Belgian photographer Jo Struyven presented his work — escape landscape photographs glowing in the dark — like being lit by moonlight — as well as paintings contributed by Luc Tuymans in the project space. The exhibition runs from January 20 – August 14, 2023 in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium. Video report (20230120) Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media .
Jan 20, 2023 – VRT | Kristien Bonneure (Belgian Flemish Broadcast) 20 jan 2023
Mastodon | 20230103 | @michelvanderburg | 1-memo•com | 1965 starting photography at the age of 13 … with a Voigtländer Vito C compact camera (fixed lens / viewfinder / no light meter / no rangefinder) – 35 mm black and white film. Elephants in the ‘Blijdorp’ Rotterdam Zoo in Holland. | TakeNode dad74825-78eb-4e0e-a3b9-1896ac6d5b1b
Samudaripen – Genocide of the Gypsies – Claire Auzias
The French author, historian and libertarian, Claire Auzias researches social movements, women’s history and Roma’s history (1). She has written several works on the Roma’s history in the last 20 years. Samudaripen, the Genocide of the Gypsies, first appeared in 1999/2000 (2,3), and is now followed by the 3rd edition (4) published by L’Esprit Frappeur (Paris).
In her book Samudaripen, Claire Auzias sheds light on this poorly documented genocide in the III Reich , Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. This entirely revised 3rd edition now includes two new chapters — one on Switzerland by Claire Auzias, and one on The Netherlands by Erik Van Den Muijzenberg. Claire Auzias , in her foreword (5) : “…the patient discovery of the identity of an anonymous icon of the deportation, in the guise of a Dutch Sinti girl, made the chapter on the Netherlands obligatory, at least for those of the French gypsies who do not read foreign languages.”
2 – Claire Auzias interview (2009) “Samudaripen” – Un entretien avec Claire Auzias, auteure du livre “Samudaripen, le génocide des Tziganes” aux éditions L’Esprit frappeur. Réalisé fin octobre 2009 par Bruno Boudiguet pour Télé Liberté / Le Cobaye international . Dailymotion URL https://dai.ly/xb9lah
5 – Claire Auzias (2022) Samudaripen, le génocide des Tsiganes (Samudaripen, the Genocide of the Gypsies), Paris, L’Esprit Frappeur (3nd edition 2022) ISBN 978-2-85103-051-1 | Avant Propos : “…la découverte patiente de l’identité d’une icône anonyme de la déportation, sous les traits d’une fillette sinti hollandaise, rendait obligatoire le chapitre sur les Pays-Bas, a minima à l’attention de ceux des Tsiganes français qui ne lisent pas les langues étrangères.”
License info :
Samudaripen – Genocide of the Gypsies – Claire Auzias | 20221210 | Settela•Com
Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 Registration – as ongoing integrating resource published by Miracles.Media (Netherlands) confirmed by the ISSN Centre of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek – the Netherlands National Library, Friday, 25th Nov 2022.
Settela•Com aims to online document and facilitate research of the Westerbork images, the use of the film in other works, the context of the camp and of the war in the Netherlands, and the destruction of diversity.
Settela•Com was made public with the first publication on May 19, 2019 — 75 years after the deportation of the Sinti girl Settela Steinbach from camp Westerbork was filmed — with the online premiere of the new one-minute film ‘Settela’.
From that first publication, contributions are published irregularly, with an average frequency of about once a month, mainly in English and Dutch, on the settela.com website.
Settela•Com welcomes contributions (English, Dutch, French) by submission of posts, papers, suggestions, or proposals within the scope of the platform.
ISSN Registration | 20221126 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
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