ANONYM | Girl with the headscarf … | 20210416

ANONYM | Girl with the headscarf …
(silent film)

Who is she ?

This frightened, dark-eyed girl with a white headscarf – anonymous icon of the holocaust … a few seconds in the unique Westerbork Film. Raw footage shot by Camp Westerbork inmate Rudolf Breslauer during World War II in Holland.

Early 1990s – 50 years later – little is known about this Westerbork film. Dutch journalist Aad Wagenaar starts searching for the girl’s name. Project ‘Esther’ – his working title.
Key finding together with the Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre researchers Gerard Rossing en Koert Broersma analyzing the film footage, is the inscription on the suitcase of that woman brought on a stretcher to that transport. Close inspection of that suitcase – flipping the image – viewing the film frame by frame – to and fro – revealed her name and birthdate : F.KROON
26.9.82

In this video I also inverted the black–white.
Further , a clearer image is possible now in the still presented here – likewise edited – taken from the higher quality , recently recovered ‘camera-original’ film found on other archived reels by Gerard Nijssen for the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision | NIOD – and published Jan 20, 2020.

That special train car with Settela, car #16, with the 74 pers. mark on the vertical shelves, was also part of that train filmed by camp inmate Rudolf Breslauer leaving Westerbork – with the ‘4’ crossed out and a 5 added – so one person had been added before departure.

On that stretcher was Frouwke Kroon – born 26 September 1882 – deported May 19, 1944 – and murdered on arrival in Auschwitz.
That train left Camp Westerbork on May 19, 1944 with ca 700 people – both Jews and 245 Sinti and Roma – the so-called ‘Gypsy transport’ – dutch: ‘Zigeunertransport’.

The girl with the headscarf got her name back Monday 7th February 1994, when Aad Wagenaar met survivor ‘Gypsy mama’ Theresia Crasa Wagner . She told him, she sat on the floor behind the girl , standing near the door. When they heard the doors being closed , her mother yelled :

‘Settela !
Get away from the door, or your head will get stuck !!’

The Dutch Sinti girl Settela (Anna Maria) Steinbach was born – the traditional way , under the family wagon – on 23 December 1934 in Buchten in the Dutch province of Limburg.

Settela’s family had been arrested 3 days before they were deported. Settela’s hair was shaved off in Camp Westerbork – hence the ‘headscarf’ made by her mother.
Mother Toetela (Emilia) Steinbach with ten children and a grandchild were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The 9-year old Settela was gassed and burned early August 1944.
Settela’s father Moeselman (Heinrich) Steinbach died of grief in 1946 in Holland.

Credits

Filmed by Rudolf Breslauer 19 May 1944 in Camp Westerbork, Netherlands.
Video from Westerbork film montage reel 1 (RVD cat.nr. 02-1167-01) courtesy of NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (KNAW), and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
Still (edit by Michel van der Burg) from camera-original film published Jan 20, 2020 courtesy of Gerard Nijssen | Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision | NIOD | NOS.

Story based on :
* Settela, het meisje heeft haar naam terug (1995-2007) by Aad Wagenaar ISBN 9789089751898 / English translation by Janna Eliot ‘Settela’ (2005-2016) ISBN 978-0-9933898-2-5 .
* Documentary film Settela, gezicht van het verleden by Cherry Duyns (VPRO, 1994).
* Kamp Westerbork gefilmd by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658 .
* Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 Apr 16) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-1x
* Nieuwe beelden van iconische Westerborkfilm gevonden (by Ronja Hijmans | NIEUWSUUR | NOS (accessed 2020 Jan 20) URL https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2319497-nieuwe-beelden-van-iconische-westerborkfilm-gevonden.html
* Settela en Willy en Het geheim van de Heksenberg (2e druk) by Rob Hendrikx and Marouska Steinbach (Heerlen : Historisch Goud – Rijckheyt, centrum voor regionale geschiedenis en Stichting Historische Kring “Het Land van Herle”, April 2017) ISBN 9789082241686. URL https://www.landvanherle.nl/product/settela-en-willy-en-het-geheim-van-de-heksenberg-2e-druk/
* ‘Sinti en Roma in Den Haag, voor, tijdens en na de Tweede Wereldoorlog (1900-1970)’ by Peter Jorna (Haags Gemeentearchief, 2021) PDF online (accessed 2021 Apr 15) URL https://www.owrs.nl/nieuws/nieuw-boek-sinti-en-roma-in-den-haag
* The Forgotten Genocide – The fate of the Sinti and Roma. Online exhibition by Tweedewereldoorlog.nl . Including a clip of the interview by journalist Aad Wagenaar with Crasa Wagner ; from documentary Settela, gezicht van het verleden, directed by Cherry Duyns (VPRO 1994) (accessed 2021 Apr 15) URL https://romasinti.eu

TAGS #girl #Settela #headscarf #anonymous #Sinti #Roma #Jew #1Memo #MiraclesMedia #michelvanderburg #Holland #Westerbork #Porajmos #Holocaust #genocide #identification #Wagenaar #WesterborkFilm

Updates

20220604 – Format changes credit line , references

Stella’s Stars in Amsterdam 1932 | 20210307

Little star Liesje Poons, 9 years-old, wins the first prize at the masquerade ball (bal masqué) organised by Stella Fontaine in 1932 at the Bellevue theater in Amsterdam, Holland.
A show with costumed children doing acts like imitating an indian, magician, Russian, and dancer, dancing on dutch and german songs like, ‘In Holland staat een huis’, ‘Waarom zijn de bananen krom’, and ‘Dass ist die Liebe der Matrose’.
Dutch diva Stella Fontaine (Saartje Kanes, 1889-1966) – born in a Jewish Amsterdam family – was a cabaret artist, imitator, actress and singer.
Liesje (Elisabeth Cornelia Poons) born 1 July 1922 in a Jewish Amsterdam family of artists – active in the world of theater and music – became a singer in big bands , performing eg. July 1940 in the Amsterdam Carré theater, and May 1943 in Leiden (newspaper Leidsche Courant May 8, 1943).

TAGS #children #jew #theater #1Memo #MiraclesMedia #michelvanderburg #Holland #Amsterdam #StellaFontaine #LiesjePoons #dance #show #holocaust #cinema #Bellevue #masquerade

Tulip Bulbs War Food Holland 1944-1945 | 20201226

Tulip Bulbs War Food Holland 1944-1945 (silent film) ~
My mother did not tell me much and no details on her experiences in World War 2, except for the Hongerwinter (“Hunger winter”) – the Dutch famine of 1944–45 – that she had to eat tulip bulbs.
The famine was caused by a German blockade plus the harsh winter blocking alternative water routes, that cut off food and fuel shipments to the western Netherlands were food stocks rapidly ran out in the large cities of The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam. Tulip bulbs and sugar beets were commonly consumed.
March 25 this year I posted a more detailed ‘biography’ and the silent film ‘Eating Tulip Bulbs’ (20200325) a silent film using photographs captured during this ‘Hunger winter’ 1944-1945 by Menno Huizinga in Holland (mainly in The Hague).
Today I found this Dutch cinema news reel from Polygoon-Profilti published March 1945 with an impression of the daily food ration for the starving population of Holland at the end of the hunger winter. One sees the preparation of tulip bulbs, sugar beets, peas and cabbage soup. Also the use of an emergency stove. Courtesy of Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Open Images).
Tulip Bulbs War Food Holland 1944-1945 | 20201226 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com

Updates

20220604 – Changes credit line

License to Fly the European Sky

Ready for 2021 flying the European skies with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) with this UAS operator license from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency – EASA – issued by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today – the Proof of Completion of the Online Training for flying in the Open Category A1/A3 civil drones !
License to Fly the European Sky | 20201214 | Michel van der Burg | 1-memo•com

Kaarsjesavond Candle Night Gouda

The people of Gouda in Holland burn candles at the traditional december candle night ‘Kaarsjesavond’ all over the historic town center, where Adrie Vergeer’s Gouda street organs ‘Pansfluiter’ (Pan whistler) and ‘Het Zonnetje’ (Little Sun) play, and the kids of Music school Gouda. When the candles in the giant tree on the central market square are lit, the Carillon is played by Boudewijn Zwart, and Gouda songs (Als de kaarsjes branden… Gouda stad van …) by Desiree Coumans with John de Heij (guitar) and Nils Davidse (piano) – sound on that freezing cold (-7°C / 19°F) Friday night December 16, 2008 in front of a massive crowd at the town hall in the city center of Gouda , Holland. Mensen in Gouda, bedankt!

Kaarsjesavond Candle Night Gouda ~ Music : Violins of the Kids Muziekschool Gouda , Street organs Pansfluiter & Het Zonnetje (Adrie Vergeer), Carillon by Boudewijn Zwart, songs by Desiree Coumans with John de Heij and Nils Davidse – Dec. 16, 2008 … Gouda people thanks! ~ Film : 20201211 Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media

Night Fall West-Terschelling

Happy holidays in the little harbor town West-Terschelling on the dutch Wadden island Terschelling, December 2016.
Night Fall West-Terschelling ~ Music : Clair du Lune (Debussy) by Ohad Ben Ari | Artlist ~ Film : 20201209 Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media

Embrace Installation

Placing of Koenraad Tinel’s work of art EMBRACE – a translation of his remarkable friendship with lawyer Simon Gronowski – in Ganshoren , Brussels , Belgium, October 22, 2018.

A sculpture on Simon Gronowski’s jump to freedom at the age of 11, when pushed by his mother out of the 20th death train to Auschwitz in 1943.

Watch the inauguration panorama October 26, 2018 here – https://michelvanderburg.com/2018/10/26/embrace/

Both Koenraad Tinel and Simon Gronowski together received honorary doctorates (doctor honoris causa) by both the VUB and ULB Brussels’ universities today Sep. 22th 2020 at 3:22 PM CET in Brussels.
Embrace Installation | 20200922 | Michel van der Burg | michelvanderburg.com | Miracles.Media