Moments from a vibrant testimony and jazz by Simon Gronowski at the Saint-Sépulcre school in Liège, Belgium, 19 november 2013.
The Institut Saint-Sépulcre (now S2J School Center) hosted 3 sessions with Simon Gronowski that day for different age groups, including adults in the evening — and, in between, an intimate jazz moment was created in the surreal ambience of the school’s chapel.
Thanks to friends Philippe Renette (co-producer), Simon Gronowski, Koenraad Tinel (Photo Dieter Telemans featured in Die Welt , Saturday 16th Nov 2013 – Feinde wie wir, by Felix Stephan) and Patrick (assisting with sound), staff Marc Belleflamme and André Hérin, and teachers Christine Marchal, Ingrid Lothe, others, and the Saint-Sépulcre students. Special thanks to the students Hélène, Charline, Tristan, Kimberley, Elodie, Farah, Esther, Estelle, Laetitia, Catherine, Tracy, and Pauline for making possible the unique events that month in 2013 for this Miracles film project.
Filmed by Michel van der Burg at the Station Liège-Guillemins, and Institut Saint-Sépulcre , Liège, Belgium, 19 november 2013.
French talks with English subtitles in open captions (OC).
Miracles Docs #8 :
The first French edition was published in 2022 as Simon Stompin’ at the Saint Sépulcre | Miracles•Media | 20221119 | ISAN 0000-0007-329C-0008-C-0000-0001-0 .
The here presented, second, edition is titled ‘Saint Sepulcre Moments’ and has open captions (burned in) showing English subtitles.
Citation info : Saint Sepulcre Moments | Miracles Docs #8 | Miracles•Media | 20250918 | ISAN 0000-0007-329C-0008-C-0000-0000-1 | TakeNode 3cb541dc-0806-4a0e-bafb-7cbf4387f6ca
From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story : The Documentary (Extended Version) • 20250419 • A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg
Today 80 years ago , April 19, 1945 – the Buchenwald band ‘Rhythmus’ – with Jiří Žák & Robert Clary – gave a jazz concert in the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald for their comrades and US soldiers that liberated the camp .
We , today, present the extended version of our Robert Clary documentary, now featuring also Robert Clary’s desire that Jiří Žák be nominated as a Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem…
November 11, 2022 — Viviane’s Story by Viviane Yarom-Castegnier & Michel van der Burg was first published by Miracles.Media the night of April 19, 2019 as eBook (ePub) including video with a file size of 200 MB.
Now, the 2nd print of this eBook (ePub) is released – with the much smaller size of 60 MB ( same ISBN 9789493147003 ). In addition now a PDF edition of the eBook is released with ISBN 9789493147010 .
You can download both these new eBooks of Viviane’s Story from the site Miracles.Media — both the ePUB (ISBN 978-94-93147-00-3) and PDF (ISBN 978-94-93147-01-0) editions. Link https://miracles.media/vivianesstory/
Viviane’s Story — Escape from Transport XX…Born 6 Months Later
by Viviane Yarom-Castegnier & Michel van der Burg
On the night of the 19th of April in 1943 – Viviane escaped in the womb of her pregnant mother from the Twentieth Train heading for Auschwitz. Isabella Weinreb-Castegnier was three-months pregnant when she jumped that night in Belgium from the fast moving 20th Death Train to Auschwitz. It was Passover eve and full moon.
Isabella escaped with a broken wrist and bruises all over her body, but no other major injuries. Her daughter Viviane – meaning “full of life”, and named so for her will to live and hold tight in her mother’s womb – was born six months later on October 30, 1943 in Brussels, Belgium.
This e-booklet presents Viviane’s story with amazing new insights discovered together with the Dutch-Belgian author-reporter Simone Korkus of the man that helped Isabella jump to freedom – Elias Gnazik.
Published April 19, 2019 by Miracles•Media together with co-publisher Richard Bloom Productions — With a foreword by Simone Korkus — ISBN 9789493147003
Spring 1944 a film is being made in the Westerbork camp, ordered and produced by camp commander SS-Obersturmführer Albert Gemmeker. Cameraman is the German Jewish prisoner Rudolf Breslauer – the camp photographer. In addition film scripts were made, but the film was never really finished or edited.
Westerbork Film Dossier
In 2017 the film dossier – with the film footage and production documents – enters the UNESCO Memory of the World Register (REF 1) . The final part of the UNESCO registry (Le film de Westerbork – édité le 8 mai 2017 – ID code 2016-118 ) lists all the documents on the Westerbork Film at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (REF 2).
That NIOD archive file — called (translated) : Directing, texts and correspondence of the film “Westerbork” has been scanned and made available online. The file contains film scripts, title cards, and the correspondence on the film.
Westerbork Film
May 7, 2022 the latest edition of the Westerbork Film – a compilation of digitally restored footage – was posted with annotations as optional closed captions – CC (REF 3). In addition a short film ‘Westerborkfilm Introduction’ was posted (REF 4) that addresses briefly the history, context, and contents of the film dossier, camp and film crew, postwar route of the film footage, including a glimpse of the film plan, title cards and correspondence.
Production documents
Before , the title cards (REF 5) and the film scripts (REF 6) were posted.
All other production documents – a file with correspondence between the camp and the outside world on obtaining camera’s , film and film processing – are detailed chronologically here in this short silent film “Westerbork Film Correspondence | 20220509” .
CREDITS
Source : NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies | 250i Westerbork, Judendurchgangslager | 854 Stukken over de Westerbork-film, 7 maart – 20 april 1944 en z.d. | File retrieved May 23, 2019 from Nationaal Archief (REF 10).
Westerbork Film Correspondence | 20220509 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0
9 – 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 .
Westerbork Film Plan
Spring 1944 a film is being made in the Westerbork camp, ordered and produced by camp commander SS-Obersturmführer Albert Gemmeker. A Film Plan propasal – 1.5 page – is written by his personal assistant the German prisoner Dienstleiter Heinz Todtmann – a journalist before WW2. Cameraman is the German Jewish prisoner Rudolf Breslauer – the camp photographer – who may have contributed to this filmplan too. In addition to the film plan , more detailed scripts were made with camera instructions and edit instructions. The film was never really finished or edited.
Westerbork Films Dossier
In 2017 the complete film dossier enters the UNESCO Memory of the World Register — including the film footage, the scripts, the drawn title cards, and the camp correspondence on the film (REF 1) . The final part of the UNESCO registry (Le film de Westerbork – édité le 8 mai 2017 – ID code 2016-118 ) lists all the documents on the Westerbork Film at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
That NIOD archive file — called (translated) : Directing, texts and correspondence of the film “Westerbork” consists of a file containing the original screenplay or script for the film, title cards, notes, correspondence and administration . That entire file has been scanned (total of 60 black and white scans) and is available online.
Westerbork Film
May 7, 2022 the complete remastered 2021 edition of the Westerbork Film – a compilation of digitally restored footage – was posted with annotations as optional closed captions – CC (REF 2) .
Westerborkfilm Introduction
May 7, 2022 also a short film ‘Westerborkfilm Introduction’ was posted (REF 3) that addresses briefly the history, context, and contents of the film dossier, camp and film crew, postwar route of the film footage, including a glimpse of the film plan, title cards and correspondence.
Title Cards
The title cards were posted in detail May 2021 (REF 4).
Film Scripts
Likewise now the film scripts (REF 5) are detailed in this short silent film Westerbork Film Scripts | 20220508 .
9 – 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 .
Westerborkfilm Introduction | 20220507 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | Introduction by Michel van der Burg on the Westerborkfilm first showing May 7, 2022 in cinema METRO Kinokulturhaus , Vienna , Austria at the DOCUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION | DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG Symposium 6-7 May, 2022 curated by Florian Widegger. Presented by Filmarchiv Austria in cooperation with the Vienna Jewish Film Festival and the Mauthausen Memorial.
This introduction is now screening via YouTube , and embedded above.
Westerborkfilm with introduction – DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG Symposium 6-7 May, 2022 curated by Florian Widegger. Presented by Filmarchiv Austria in cooperation with the Vienna Jewish Film Festival and the Mauthausen Memorial URL https://www.filmarchiv.at/en/program/special/dokumente-der-vernichtung/
CREDITS & REFERENCES
Special thanks to Valentine Kuypers , curator at Sound and Vision, image researcher Gerard Nijssen, and the Westerbork Memorial Center researchers Bas Kortholt , Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing. Aad Wagenaar, research journalist and author of book Settela.
Work on the 2021 Westerbork film edition has been a joint effort of four dutch organizations : the Dutch media archive Sound & Vision, Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre , the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam.
The Westerbork film, May 7, 2022 at the symposium DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG of the Jüdischen Filmfestival Wien , the Mauthausen Memorial , and Filmarchiv Austria.
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).
De Westerborkfilm 📽️🎞️ | Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld & Geluid | YouTube Apr 8, 2021 URL https://youtu.be/8Y-A4BkWY18
Gerestaureerde filmbeelden Westerbork (1944) (May 18, 2021) Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | Youtube (accessed 2021 Jul 19) URL: https://youtu.be/-zCmr6PSNcI
Kamp Westerbork gefilmd (May 2021) Koert Broersma, Gerard Rossing (editor Gorcum B.V., Koninklijke van) ISBN 9789023257622.
‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen) ISBN 9023232658
Dawn Skorczewski & Bettine Siertsema (2018): ‘The kind of spirit that people still kept’: VHA testimonies of Amsterdam’s Diamond Jews, Holocaust Studies URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17504902.2018.1516361
Diamantkinderen: Amsterdamse Diamantjoden en de Holocaust . Translated title of the contribution: Diamond Children: Amsterdam’s Diamond Jews and the Holocaust. Siertsema, Bettine (2020) Uitgeverij Verbum ISBN 9789493028340
Fabian Schmidt (2020): The Westerbork Film Revisited: Provenance, the Re-Use of Archive Material and Holocaust Remembrances, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, URL : https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2020.1730033
Westerbork Film Scripts | 20220508 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Westerbork Film Correspondence | 20220509 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
ANONYM | Girl with the headscarf … | 20210416 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Westerbork Film in ‘Proces Rauter’ 1948 | 20190520 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | Display edition annotated online in CC.
Westerborkfilm Introduction | 20220507 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | Introduction by Michel van der Burg on the Westerborkfilm screening in METRO Kinokulturhaus , Vienna , Austria at the DOCUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION | DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG Symposium 6-7 May, 2022 curated by Florian Widegger. Presented by Filmarchiv Austria in cooperation with the Vienna Jewish Film Festival and the Mauthausen Memorial.
Jews of Corfu: A population group that was an important part of the island, participated in the formation of its history, and contributed to the development of trade and economy. But the tragic events that befell them were added to the black pages of human history.
The Jews of Corfu a film by Mirjan Gjergjevica (direction, cinematography, editing, production) & Maria Boua (script, music, sound, production). Narration by Yannis Andriotis, with Zaharias Matathias • Linos Sousis • Nina Vital.
‘Helping this production was absolutely worth it …’ – Michel van der Burg ;)
The Jews Of Corfu | 20220310 | 1-memo•com
News
Monday , March 14, 2022 – Review ‘The Jews of Corfu ‘
Powerful documentary , 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.
