Dutch cinema news reel from November 1945 reporting on Palestine soldiers of the Jewish Brigade, stationed in the Dutch port city of IJmuiden, and taking a course at the municipal fishing school there, where they learned to navigate and fish, practicing at the Dutch IJsselmeer lake, in order to settle in Palestine as fishermen after completing their service.
Notes
After the German surrender in 1945, soldiers of the Jewish Brigade, the “Jewish Fighting Unit”, a unit of around 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine serving in the British Army, were stationed in northwestern Europe, including the Netherlands.
Members of the Jewish Brigade in the Dutch port town IJmuiden (port to Amsterdam) and its surroundings were involved in: guarding German POWs , displaced persons support, and facilitating Jewish refugees’ clandestine departure to Palestine. Seafaring skills were directly relevant to both commercial livelihoods and the clandestine immigration (Aliyah Bet) efforts by sea. The British disbanded the brigade in July 1946.
Credits
Source: Dutch cinema news Polygoon-Profilti (Producer | Nov 1945) courtesy of Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Open Images).
Citation info : Jewish Brigade 1945 • Dutch Seamanship Training | 20250615 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | TakeNode a24a6599-dd79-47e3-a106-51289a480995 | URL https://settela.com/2025/06/15/
Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic-System • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123_1 • TakeNode 5b4fa0c5-cecb-45ba-aa39-6df4c833ed43
My first slide in the January 1988 Workshop of the Dutch Diabetes Research Society* in Oosterbeek, Holland, on our new Pancreas & Islet Transplantation Program that had just started in 1988, introduced this still undeveloped field of research the Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic-System (1).
This system ( GEPS ) in which the gastro-intestinal hormones influence the secretion of insulin and other hormones from the pancreatic islets – the “entero-insular” axis – is changed in transplantation of the pancreas or isolated islets of Langerhans.
Insulin feedback on the gut hormone CCK • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123_2 • TakeNode ac392976-fa14-4d1e-95bb-84e5808ee443
Evidence of insulin feedback on the gut hormone CCK was presented with this poster the next year at the Holland Digestive Disease Week congress in the RAI in Amsterdam (2).
Notes
1) Workshop of the Dutch Diabetes Research Society*, Oosterbeek (The Netherlands) January 22–23, 1988.
2) Van der Burg MPM, Guicherit OR, Gooszen HG, Jansen JBMJ, Frölich M, Lamers CBHW. Evidence for insulin-feedback on fasting CCK in dogs. Holland Digestive Disease Week, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) June 21–24, 1989.
*NVDO – now known as : Dutch Association for Diabetes Research – https://www.nvdo.online/en/homepage-english/ Award – The year before I received the Dutch Diabetes Research Society 1987 Master’s thesis award for my master’s thesis “Effect of cyclosporine-A on the endocrine pancreas” (received at the Spring meeting of the Dutch Diabetes Research Society, Utrecht, The Netherlands, April 4, 1987).
Update 20250124 – added NVDO details and 1987 award master’s thesis “Effect of cyclosporine-A on the endocrine pancreas”
Citation info : Entero Insular Axis • Michel van der Burg • Miracles.Media • @1MEMO 20250123 • URL michelvanderburg.com/2025/01/23/
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.
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.
The unique 1935 sound film of the Amsterdam’s Great Synagogue Choir (1,2,3) was made by the popular Polygoon journalist Jo Levi.
Wondering who Jo Levi was , I searched online, and found this picture below (20241107_1) with Jo Levi. Jo Levi is the second man from the left in this postwar photo of Polygoon men, posted by former Polygoon editor Fredo Krooshof at Cinecentrum Hilversum (4).
Polygoon Men • Miracles•Media • 20241107_1 | Source Cinecentrum Hilversum : Left to Right : Cees v.d. Wilden – Dir. Polygoon Haarlem; Jo Levi – Red. Pol.jnl; Philip Bloemendal – Red. and comm. Pol.jnl; Man in the background – name unknown; Gé Bresser – Procurator Polygoon; RVD man – name unknown (4).
Jo Levi together with Philip Bloemendal directed the Dutch cinema news for Polygoon. Philip Bloemendal , nicknamed “The voice of the Netherlands” , was for 40 years (from 1946 to 1986) the Dutch cinema newsreel announcer, voice-over, and editor . His voice-overs are The Voice of the postwar Dutch Polygoon news reels.
“Where they are not, nothing is happening” was the motto (5) of the cameramen of the Polygoon newsreel company in Holland.
May 1931 , two dutch newsreel companies, Polygoon in the city of Haarlem, and Profilti in The Hague, were competing to have the premiere of the first Dutch cinema newsreel with sound. Below a May 17, 1931 Polygoon interview (6) with former cyclist and sportsman W.W. van der Vet on the occasion of his 85th birthday (20241107_2).
6. Opa Vet (sportopa) voor de microfoon. Published 17 May 1931. Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (producer) / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (Open Beelden archive)
Citation info : Polygoon Journalist Jo Levi • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • 20241107
Geluidsopname ter Groote Synagoge • NIW 15 Nov 1935 • Miracles•Media • 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.
After the monster film congress in Berlin, a swinging Saturday night 23 March 1935 in the Amsterdam Carlton Hotel at The First Dutch Film Ball (Het Eerste Nederlandsche Filmbal) organized by the dutch film world (with Loet Barnstein, …Ehrlich…Hamburger…Willy Mullens…Max Tak…Abraham Tuschinski…Kor Postma) both to celebrate the film world and especially to collect money for their foundation ‘Bio Vakantieoord’ ( Cine Holiday Resort ) — founded in 1927 by the cinema owner Abraham Tuschinski and the Dutch Cinema Association (Nederlandse Bioscoopbond; NBB; association of cinemas , distributors and producers) to facilitate holidays in their seaside ‘castle’ on the dutch coast, each month for 90 poor lower class children living in the big cities like Amsterdam. At that time, also , twice a year (the Christmas and Easter weeks), money was collected for that Bio Holiday Resort foundation in the dutch cinemas, but because of the Great Depression donations are shifting from ‘silver’ to nickel …copper . The fundraising went hand in hand with promotional films made by the Dutch Profilti and Polygoon cinema newsreel companies . Next week people would watch this Polygoon news in the cinemas. The newspapers wrote, those present will be filmed, and if allowed by the police , the film will be shown the same night, and many movie and theater stars, filmschlagers, to be present … Harry Baur, Henriette Davids, Jopie Koopmans, Kid Johnson, Reri, Johan Kaart, Frits van Dongen, Henk Alsem.
Dutch news bulletin De groene Amsterdammer had a picture (collage?) with prominent guests (or impersonations?) : Gloria Swanson, Max Tak, Jean Harlow, Loet C. Barnstijn, Norma Shearer, Dr. M. de Hartog, Lupe Velez, Louis Davids, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Sylvain Poons, Myrna Loy, Mariene Dietrich, Wethouder Boissevain, Kor Postma, Theo Ketelaar. And a dutch cinematography news bulletin reported ‘the expected foreign stars were conspicuous by their absence’.
Film edited from dutch Polygoontoon (Polygoon Hollands Nieuws) cinema news reel week 13, 1935 | Sound & Vision (Open Images).
