Child’s Cry is a musical edition of the film Transport XX Face To Face (20200110) matched to ‘Que Siga el Calor’ , an original song by Simon Lapscher, Moshe Bitton, and Samuel Truzman.
A special co-production for International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020.
Comment by Samuel Truzman :
“Esta canción la escribimos cuando teníamos 16 años, con unos amigos con los que tenía una banda que se llamaba So Seven. La fuerza y el impacto de la canción y el sentimiento es el mismo, nunca olvidar.
Escrita por: Simon Lapscher, Bimbi y yo.”
English translation of Samuel’s comment (by me):
“This song we wrote when we were 16 years with some friends that had a band called So Seven. The strength and impact of the song and the feeling is the same, never forget.
Written by: Simon Lapscher, Bimbi and Samuel Truzman.”
Made possible by: Project “Give them a Face” – Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on the Holocaust and Human Rights (Mechelen, BE); and the National State Archives of Belgium. Ministry of Justice, Public Safety Office, Foreigner’s Police, individual files.
Note : The film edition posted January 25, 2020 (20200125) is replaced by this Feb. 2, 2020 edition (20200202).
Music : Que Siga el Calor by Simon Lapscher, Moshe Bitton, and Samuel Truzman.
Film : Child’s Cry (20200125-20200202) Michel van der Burg | miracles.media
English translation of the spanish lyrics :
Uncertain life
Reality
Once again loses
…Its integrity
You were sitting on nana’s bed thinking about going out to play When will you be old enough…
…to learn how to die?
How to understand that here is where his childhood dies?
Strange men are taking Dad away
You can’t find the light
The sun goes down, and you’re thirsty inside a wagon
You’re starting to lose your illusion
Grace no longer covers you
She raises her voice, is impatient
Because the train’s driver did not warn her
That she was on the death train
So pitiful is humanity
She hides the truth
But that child
Who was not given a start
Could have been the captain
Of this ship
That knows not how to navigate
Me, you, him
We are all
Wanderers walking.
The death of the jew was proclaimed
He was laughing mercilessly
The cry of that child burned us
Tet the heat continue
The death of the jew was proclaimed
He was laughing mercilessly
The cry of that child burned us
Let the heat continue
Uncertain life
Reality.
When the Westerbork camp was liberated in 1945 – 75 years ago – the Westerbork Film reels began a new life.
The Westerbork Films Collection – silent film – is unique…the only authentic documentary footage filmed in a Nazi camp – a waiting room for death in the Netherlands for more than 100,000 Jews, and Roma, Sinti, and resistance workers. A documentary filmed in the spring of 1944 in the Westerbork transit camp, by the German-Jewish camp prisoner Rudolf Werner Breslauer, who had been working already some 2 years as a photographer in the camp. A ‘Kulturfilm’ commissioned by camp commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer, Albert Konrad Gemmeker, to convince the Gestapo headquarters of Westerbork’s vital production value.
The Westerbork camp had been set up by the Dutch government before the war in Holland, in 1939, as a central refugees camp for Jewish refugees from Nazi-Germany.
In 1942 , when the Nazi’s decided to start ‘Entjüdung’ of the Netherlands, they took over the camp and named it Polizeiliches Judendurchgangslager Westerbork , for use as central transit camp for deportation of mainly Jews, and Roma, Sinti, and resistance people to eastern Europe.
Rudolf Breslauer started filming March 1944 – around the same time the camp status changed to ‘Arbeitslager’.
This film on the daily life of the Westerbork prisoners was added in 2017 to the Memory of the World Register of Unesco.
Here a compilation (album) of the film reels listed in the Unesco Memory of the World registry of ‘Le film de Westerbork’ (Ref. 1) of all known Westerbork film footage shot by Rudolf Breslauer (Werner Rudolf Breslauer) in Camp Westerbork in 1944 – the inventory deposited in the Unesco Memory of the World Registry of documentary heritage in 2017.
This Westerbork Films Collection includes to the best of my knowledge all known footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944 in Camp Westerbork, Netherlands – footage that I presented before via several posts in 2019 on Settela•Com and other platforms .
The compilation is based on the May 8, 2017 edition of UNESCO Memory of the World document ID code [2016-118] delivered by Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Jan Müller & Hans van der Windt) and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Frank van Vree). Research and reports by Aad Wagenaar, Cherry Duyns, Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing on the Westerbork film footage formed the basis of the UNESCO documentation (Ref. 1,2,3,4).
This Unesco compilation is divided here for convenience in 3 main parts :
WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM – PART 1
Westerbork 1986 Film (Acts 1,2,3,4)
This first part is the full film of the montage produced in 1986 by the Netherlands State Archive (RVD) – generally known as the Westerbork Film ‘ACTE’ 1, 2, 3, 4.
Published first June 5, 2019 as :
Westerbork Film ~ Full version RVD. Montage of the Westerbork reels 1-4 (RVD cat.nrs. 02-1167-01, 02-1167-02, 02-1167-03, 02-1167-04 courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | OpenImages). Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944 , Camp Westerbork, Netherlands. Ref. 5. Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-1x
WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM – PART 2
Westerbork 1996 Film (Acts 1,2)
The second part is the alternative Westerbork film first presented in the Netherlands (TV Broadcasts) in 1996 – in 2 acts using the early 1990s (re-) discovered ‘rest’ footage reels labeled ‘OVERS’ in dutch (english : Left-Overs) and since presented as alternative Westerbork Film (OVERS) ACTE 1,2 or Rest material 1,2 .
This 1996 ‘alternative’ film includes both new scenes and scenes also present in the 1986 ‘RVD’ original Westerbork film.
Westerbork 1996 Film – Act 1 (OVERS – Rest 1)
Published June 16, 2019 as :
Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014. Scaled, cropped, otherwise unedited footage F1014.
Source Beeld en Geluid (2-1167 | former cat.nr. F1014) , accessed at US Holocaust Memorial Museum (copy Film ID 2242 RG-60.2105 – License Free – Public Domain) , courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid. Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944.
Ref. 6. Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
Westerbork 1996 Film – Act 2 (OVERS – Rest 2)
Published June 15, 2019 as :
Forgotten Westerbork Film Reel…F1015. Scaled, otherwise unedited footage F1015.
Source Beeld en Geluid (former cat.nr. F1015) , accessed at US Holocaust Memorial Museum (copy Film ID 2242 – license Public Domain) , courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid. Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944.
Ref. 7. Forgotten Westerbork Film Reel…F1015 | 20190615 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2a
WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM – PART 3
Westerbork Film Fragments (Sources 1,2,3)
Part 3, the last part, is a compilation of all the clips recovered from footage cut out from original film (before the 1986 montage) and lent for use in : 1948 dutch cinema newsreels (Polygoon), and a 1962 dutch TV documentary. Containing – aside from known scenes – also original footage and copies (upscaled 35mm) of scenes never re-edited back into the Westerbork films.
Westerbork Film Fragments – Source 1 : Polygoon newsreel 1948 Proces Rauter Note: Cinema newsreel Polygoon 1948 week 15 – ‘Proces Rauter’
Ref 8. Westerbork Film Fragments…1948 Polygoon News | 20190806 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2h
Westerbork Film Fragments – Source 2 : Polygoon newsreel 1948 #48298
Note: Cinema newsreel Polygoon 1948 – fragments used in cinema news and surplus fragments not used in the news.
Ref 9. Tracing Lost Westerbork Film Clips…Polygoon Reel 48298 | 20190807 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2i
Westerbork Film Fragments – Source 3 : NTS tv show 1962 Episode 9 The Occupation
Note: Dutch TV broadcast (NTS) Episode 9 of television show De Bezetting (Occupation) (1962).
Ref 10. Tracing Lost Westerbork Film…1960s RIOD-NTS clip | 20190812 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) https://wp.me/p91enH-2l
LIST OF SHOTS – SCENES
Details of the shots in the 1986 Westerbork film (Part 1 of this album) were posted before (Ref 5) and will be added here later.
2 Settela, gezicht van het verleden by Cherry Duyns (VPRO, 1994) documentary film
3 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
4 ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658
5. Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-1x
6. Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
7. Forgotten Westerbork Film Reel…F1015 | 20190615 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2a
8. Westerbork Film Fragments…1948 Polygoon News | 20190806 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2h
9. Tracing Lost Westerbork Film Clips…Polygoon Reel 48298 | 20190807 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2i
10. Tracing Lost Westerbork Film…1960s RIOD-NTS clip | 20190812 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2019 Dec 19) https://wp.me/p91enH-2l
CREDITS
WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM , courtesy of the : NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (KNAW), and the Netherlands Institute of Image and Sound | OpenImages | Polygoon | NTS | NPO-VPRO | US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944 , Camp Westerbork, Netherlands.
Special thanks to Aad Wagenaar, Cherry Duyns, Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing for their Westerbork film footage research and reports that formed the UNESCO documentation.
Film : WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM | 20200120 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0 .
NL – WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM, met dank aan het NIOD instituut voor oorlogs-, holocaust- en genocide studies (KNAW), en het Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | Open Beelden | Polygoon | NTS | US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Gefilmd door Rudolf Breslauer in 1944 , Kamp Westerbork, Nederland.
Dank vooral aan Aad Wagenaar, Cherry Duyns, Koert Broersma en Gerard Rossing voor hun Westerbork film onderzoek en verslaglegging, waarop de UNESCO documentatie is gebaseerd.
Film : WESTERBORK FILMS COLLECTION – UNESCO ALBUM | 20200120 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0 .
NEWS :
Jan. 20, 2020 – Tonight 8 PM the NOS dutch daily news broadcaster (reporter Ronja Hijmans) showed a newly discovered 6 sec Westerbork film clip – of a german guard in the camp – found by dutch image researcher Gerard Nijssen. In total currently 96 minutes of unique footage are known. Link https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2319497-nieuwe-beelden-van-iconische-westerborkfilm-gevonden.html ma 20 jan 2020
Updates
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
Transport XX Face to Face
This 1 minute film is a video impression (February 28th, 2009) of the confrontation of passers-by with the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels, that presented photographic portraits of 1,200 of the 1,631 Jewish prisoners deported with the 20th train convoy to Auschwitz in 1943.
Transport XX to Auschwitz
On April 19, 1943 at 10 p.m. the 20th train convoy departed the Dossin barracks (Kazerne Dossin) in Mechelen (Belgium) with 40 cattle cars crammed with 1631 Jewish men, women and children for Auschwitz (Poland). The in Belgium captured Jews were over 90% ‘foreigners’ (with no Belgian nationality) who either when war broke out or (many) years earlier had fled from mainly Eastern Europe, Germany and Holland to Belgium. Half an hour after the departure of this transport XX three young Belgians from Brussels, Youra Livschitz, Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau stopped the train between Boortmeerbeek and Haacht, opened one of the cars and liberated 17 prisoners. Later before the train reaches the German border over 200 other prisoners decide to attempt to escape and also jump out of the cars. In total 233 people attempted to escape, and 188 did succeed. Unfortunately also 26 were killed and 89 others recaptured and interned or put on future trains to Auschwitz. This 20th transport arrived at Auschwitz on April 22. Only 153 of those on board survived this death camp. This was the only documented attack on a death train during the Shoah.
More on Transport XX in the 1 hour documentary film ‘Transport XX to Auschwitz’ – a film by Karen Lynne & Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg – https://michelvanderburg.com/2013/04/19/transport-xx-to-auschwitz/
Project “Give them a Face”
The Kazerne Dossin (project “Give them a Face”) digitalised the photo’s of the Dossin prisoners, that mostly are from the “National State Archives of Belgium. Ministry of Justice, Public Safety Office, Foreigner’s Police, individual files”
The TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels was organised from 27 January to 15 March 2009 by the BELvue Museum in collaboration with the JMDR / Kazerne Dossin. The photographic portraits were displayed outside in the Royal park in Brussels (opposite the Royal Palace).
Thank you: Marjan Verplancke and other co-workers of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance (JMDR) in Mechelen (Malines, Belgium) and project “Give them a Face”.
With the ‘Give Them a Face’ project the Kazerne Dossin aims to bring together as many portraits of deportees from the Dossin barracks in Mechelen as possible and give them back their face – and the memory alive.
For this special ‘The One Minute’ edition, the original film of around 3 minutes was edited to a 1-minute cut.
‘Transport XX – Face to Face’ by Michel van der Burg premiered at the ‘Where history starts’ festival by The One Minutes and the Museum of National History (innl) in theater Paradiso , November 28, 2010, Amsterdam, Netherlands. That ‘Where history starts’ series of 1 minute films was also released by theoneminutes foundation in 2010 on DVD (limited edition). That original 2010 1-minute film contained no title nor credits. The title and credits were added in the 2012 edition of the 1-minute film that I made available on DVD and also online (that 2012 edition is republished here in larger format and modified endscreen).
Online the 2010 edition was first shown in a short documentary of the premiere screening via Vimeo (#35784512) 27 January 2012, and the 2012 (DVD) edition with credits was published via Vimeo (#40331755 – vimeo.com/michelvanderburg/txx1minute ) 13 April 2012, and via Youtube at the now dormant iClip channel Apr 19, 2012.
This 2020 edition
Now (January 2020) a 4K edition is published – new online at my main YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/michelvanderburg ) and new also at the today started Instagram account Miracles.Media ( @miracles.media ).
Transport XX Face to Face ~ The One Minutes
This 1 minute film is a video impression (February 28th, 2009) of the confrontation of passers-by with the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels, that presented photographic portraits of 1,200 of the 1,631 Jewish prisoners deported with the 20th train convoy to Auschwitz in 1943.
Event : TRANSPORT XX installation by the BELvue Museum / JMDR / Kazerne Dossin, February 28, 2009, Brussels, Belgium.
Original film version : ‘TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels’ – published online April 19, 2009 by Michel van der Burg | https://michelvanderburg.com/2009/04/19/transport-xx-installation-brussels/ .
This 1 minute film ‘Transport XX – Face to Face’ by Michel van der Burg premiered at the ‘Where history starts’ festival by The One Minutes and the Museum of National History (innl) in theater Paradiso , November 28, 2010, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Instagram : @miracles.media @theoneminutes @michelvanderburg @kazernedossin @belvuemuseum @paradisoadam Full info posted at https://michelvanderburg.com/2020/01/10/ Film : Transport XX Face to Face (20200110) Michel van der Burg | miracles.media
The Westerbork Film – a silent film – is unique…the only authentic documentary footage filmed in a Nazi camp – a waiting room for death in the Netherlands for more than 100,000 Jews, and Roma, Sinti, and resistance workers. A documentary filmed 75 years ago, spring 1944, in the Westerbork transit camp, by the German-Jewish camp prisoner Rudolf Werner Breslauer, who had been working already some 2 years as a photographer in the camp. A ‘Kulturfilm’ commissioned by camp commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer, Albert Konrad Gemmeker, to convince the Gestapo headquarters of Westerbork’s vital production value.
The Westerbork camp had been set up by the Dutch government before the war in Holland, in 1939, as a central refugees camp for Jewish refugees from Nazi-Germany.
In 1942 , when the Nazi’s decided to start ‘Entjüdung’ of the Netherlands, they took over the camp and named it Polizeiliches Judendurchgangslager Westerbork , for use as central transit camp for deportation of mainly Jews, and Roma, Sinti, and resistance people to eastern Europe.
Rudolf Breslauer started filming March 1944 – around the same time the camp status changed to ‘Arbeitslager’. (Ref. 1)
This film on the daily life of the Westerbork prisoners was added in 2017 to the Memory of the World Register of Unesco. (Ref. 2)
Iconic is the image of Settela – the girl with the headscarf -between the wagon doors of the deportation train to Auschwitz.
These few seconds are shown in the 1 minute slow-motion film Settela at Settela•Com.
Images of the deportation train have been used in many documentaries over the years – such as our 2012 documentary ‘Transport XX to Auschwitz’.
Actually , however, the Westerbork film has as yet not been presented online or elsewhere as a full film – only in parts : as either Acte 1 , Acte 2 , Acte 3 , or Acte 4 for download or for streaming separately , either in low quality, small format (and generally just Acte 1) or with a rough overall edit (color-exposure grading) resulting in loss of details.
I therefore decided to first present the full film , all 4 episodes , unedited except for cropping black bars, as the : Westerbork Film ~ Full version RVD…and later focus on adaptations.
What is known as the Westerbork Film , actually is a simple montage of the available raw film footage – 9 reels of film – handed over by the (Dutch) Filmmuseum in 1986 to the Dutch National Centre for Information (the Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst, RVD).
The RVD conservator glued together these available fragments – and this ‘product’ in 4 parts (Acte 1 , Acte 2 , Acte 3 , and Acte 4) has become known as the “Westerbork film”.
Reels number 1 and 2 were glued together in ‘Acte 1’, reels 3 and 4 in Acte 2, reels 5 and 6 in Acte 3, and reels 7, 8 and 9 in Acte 4 (see below).
Conservation of footage
In the early years after the war, the Westerbork film footage travelled via different routes, roughly, in part leaving the camp with ex camp commander Gemmeker, and another part ‘directly’ from the camp … to land partly in the nearby Drents Museum and partly in eg. the Department of Justice and next finally in a collection started in 1946 in the ‘RIOD’ Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (National Institute for War Documentation) – now ‘NIOD’ – Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The RIOD glued fragments together probably, and fragments were extracted too, and lent for use eg. in the 1948 trial against Rauter, the trial against Gemmeker, and for use in the 60s dutch TV series ‘De bezetting’ (The Occupation) presented by Loe de Jong (journalist, historian, and RIOD director from 1945-1979). For conservation this ‘RIOD film’ went on loan in 1958 to the Filmmuseum (now EYE Film Museum), and in 1986 the footage went to the RVD.
The RVD did not receive all footage from the Filmmuseum – the fragments extracted by the RIOD for use in the trials and TV series were lacking and two reels just remained in the Filmmuseum vault.
Tracing extracted fragments , and the discovery of new images
Reel D1596 – The 1948 Dutch Polygoon cinema news extracts were not all assembled back in the Westerbork film reels – see the recent post 20190520 ~ Westerbork Film in ‘Proces Rauter’ 1948 at Settela•Com .
Also , not all footage given on loan for that ‘Polygoon news’ ended up in that news item. That ‘Polygoon’ footage copied onto 35 mm film – both the used and non-used fragments – were kept in the Dutch Filmmusuem on a so-called reel number D1596.
Research published in the 1997 Dutch book ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658) traced the extracted film fragments, and further re-discovered film fragments with comparatively poorer quality on two reels – F1015 and F1014 (Ref. 1) :
Reel F1015 — F1015 (known till 1958 as reel 9a ; but actually the 10th reel of the Westerbork film) contains 9 scenes including 2 new scenes (not in the RVD Westerbork film): the religious service held March 5, 1944 in the Grote Zaal (Great Hall) and the scene of a woman on a ladder working on a signpost. This reel had remained in the Filmmuseum vault.
Reel F1014 seemed lost in the archives of the Filmmuseum and was denoted then ‘Afvalmateriaal/uitschot’ , that is ‘Trash’.
All footage is now kept at the Netherlands Institute of Image and Sound .
Below list of shots of the Westerbork Film (Ref. 3) :
Westerbork Act 1 (# 02-1167-01), 16 mm, silent, 21’05 “
– 1. Inbound transport from Amsterdam, March 1944: 1 min 37 sec.
– 2. Inbound transport from Vught, March 20, 1944: 2 min 09 sec.
– 3. Outbound transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, May 19, 1944: 4 min 41 sec.
– 4. Aircraft disassembly, April / May 1944: 11 min 23 sec.
Westerbork Act 2 (# 02-1167-02), 16 mm, silent, 21’41 “
– 5. Disassembly of old batteries and manufacture of new batteries, April / May 1944: 3 min 03 sec.
– 6. Separation of layers of silver paper, April / May 1944: 1 min 22 sec.
– 7. Clothing factory, April / May 1944: 2 min 51 sec.
– 8. Toy factory, April / May 1944: 3 min 28 sec.
– 9. Furniture workshop, April / May 1944: 2 min 14 sec.
– 10. Metalworking shop / Forge, April / May 1944, 2 min 47 sec.
– 11. Manufacture of brushes, April / May 1944: 43 sec.
– 12. Shoemaking, April / May 1944: 1 min 38 sec.
– 13. Manufacture of handbags, April / May 1944: 1 min 09 sec.
– 14. Manufacture of soles and gloves, April / May 1944: 33 sec.
– 15. Weaving and repairing stockings, April / May 1944: 1 min 25 sec.
Westerbork Act 3 (# 02-1167-03), 16 mm, silent, 18’03 “
– 16. Cufflinks factory, April / May 1944: 1 min 16 sec.
– 17. Clothing factory, April / May 1944: 32 sec.
– 18. Laundry / ironing, April / May 1944: 1 min 18 sec.
– 19. Medical laboratory, April / May 1944: 45 sec.
– 20. Dental Clinic, April / May 1944: 25 sec.
– 21. Unloading construction materials for barracks / unloading mine carts with bricks, April / May 1944: 1 min 33 sec.
– 22. Construction greenhouse , installation and watering plants, April / May 1944: 1 min 46 sec.
– 23. By narrow gauge train to Oranjekanaal / jetty pile driving / unloading cargo ship with bricks / loading mine carts / return to camp, April / May 1944: 4 min 33 sec.
– 24. Visit to the camp farm, April / May 1944: 4 min 39 sec.
Westerbork Act 4 (# 02-1167-04), 16 mm, silent, 21’30 “
– 25. Visit camp farm (continued), April / May 1944: 2 min 30 sec.
– 26. Return / visit agriculture / plowing and planting potatoes, April / May 1944: 4 min 20 sec.
– 27. Arrival camp / unloading mine carts with bricks, April / May 1944: 1 min. 20 sec
– 28. Construction purification plant, April / May 1944: 52 sec.
– 29. Felling and sawing trees near Assen, April / May 1944: 4 min 50 sec.
– 30. Religious service in the Great Hall, March 5, 1944: 6 sec.
– 31. Football match at the roll call area (Appellplatz), April / May 1944: 2 min 04 sec.
– 32. Women exercising, April / May 1944: 1 min.
– 33. Revue night – ‘Bunter Abend’ – in the Great Hall, April / May 1944: 4 min 05 sec.
Rudolf Breslauer and family
Rudolf Breslauer (1904-1944) was in Westerbork for over two and a half years with his wife Bella Weismann, daughter Ursula, and sons Mischa and Stephan.
In Sep 1944 they were transported to Auschwitz via Theresiënstadt, and murdered in the gas chamber, except Ursula who survived the war and went to Israel in 1948, where she and her husband Chaim Moses set up their own company. Her name has since been Chanita Moses – she has children and many grandchildren.
FR (French)
Le film de Westerbork (Ref. 3, 4)
Durant le printemps 1944, le déporté juif Rudolf Breslauer a immortalisé dans un film le quotidien du camp de transit de Westerbork. La fonction de Westerbork était de rassembler des Juifs romani et néerlandais pour le transport vers des camps de concentration nazis. Le film a été commandé par le commandant du camp allemand Albert Gemmeker. Gemmeker voulait produire un film professionnel visant à montrer la valeur économique du camp.
Breslauer a filmé les déportations qui avaient lieu le mardi vers d’autres camps de concentration, mais la plupart des images dépeignent des ‘instants de normalité’ tels que des hommes et des femmes en bonne santé travaillant dans des ateliers ou faisant du sport, des enfants à l’école, ou des scènes se déroulant à l’hôpital, au cabaret et même lors d’une messe à l’église. Bien que le film de Westerbork n’ait jamais été achevé, la plupart des séquences brutes ont été conservées.
Des extraits de ce film ont été largement utilisés dans des documentaires, films et autres actualités filmées depuis 1948. Les séquences montrant les déportations et tout particulièrement celle où l’on voit une jeune Sinté, Settela Steinbach, observant l’objectif à travers les portes d’un wagon, sont devenues emblématiques du programme d’extermination systématique mis en place par les nazis.
Les scènes du Westerbork film sont listées ci-dessous :
Westerbork Acte 1 (# 02-1167-01), 16 mm, muet, 21’05 “
– 1. Transport entrant d’Amsterdam, mars 1944: 1 min 37 sec.
– 2. Transport entrant de Vught, 20 mars 1944: 2 min 09 sec.
– 3. Transport sortant vers Bergen-Belsen et Auschwitz, le 19 mai 1944: 4 min 41 sec.
– 4. Démontage d’avion, avril / mai 1944: 11 min 23 sec.
Westerbork Acte 2 (# 02-1167-02), 16 mm, muet, 21’41”
– 5. Démontage de piles anciennes et fabrication de nouvelles piles, avril / mai 1944: 3 min 03 sec.
– 6. Séparation des couches de papier d’argent, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 22 sec.
– 7. Atelier de confection vêtement, avril / mai 1944: 2 min 51 sec.
– 8. Usine de jouets, avril / mai 1944: 3 min 28 sec.
– 9. Atelier de meubles, avril / mai 1944: 2 min 14 sec.
– 10. Atelier de travail des métaux / Atelier de forgeron, Avril / Mai 1944, 2 min 47 sec.
– 11. Fabrication de brosses, avril / mai 1944: 43 sec.
– 12. Atelier de fabrication de chaussures, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 38 sec.
– 13. Fabrication de sacs en cuir, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 09 sec.
– 14. Fabrication de semelles et de gants, avril / mai 1944: 33 sec.
– 15. Tissage et réparation de bas, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 25 sec.
Westerbork Acte 3 (# 02-1167-03), 16 mm, muet, 18’03”
– 16. Fabrication de boutons de manchette, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 16 sec.
– 17. Atelier confection, avril / mai 1944: 32 sec.
– 18. Blanchisserie / repassage, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 18 sec.
– 19. Laboratoire médical, avril / mai 1944: 45 sec.
– 20. Clinique dentaire, avril / mai 1944: 25 sec.
– 21. Déchargement de matériels pour la construction de baraques / déchargement de wagonnets de mine avec des briques, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 33 sec.
– 22. Construction d’une serre et l’installation et l’arrosage des plantes, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 46 sec.
– 23. Par train à voie étroite à Oranjekanaal / construction de jetée / déchargement d’un cargo avec des briques / chargement des wagonnets de mine / retour au camp, avril / mai 1944: 4 min 33 sec.
– 24. Visite à la ferme du camp, avril / mai 1944: 4 min 39 sec
Westerbork Acte 4 (# 02-1167-04), 16 mm, muet, 21’30”
– 25. Visite à la ferme du camp (suite), avril / mai 1944: 2 min 30 sec.
– 26. Retour / visite de l’agriculture / labourer et planter des pommes de terre, avril / mai 1944: 4 min 20 sec.
– 27. Retour au camp / déchargement de briques des wagonnets de mine, avril / mai 1944: 1 min 20 sec.
– 28. Construction de l’installation de purification, avril / mai 1944: 52 sec
– 29. Abattre et scier des arbres près d’Assen, avril / mai 1944: 4 min 50 sec.
– 30. Service religieux dans la Grande Salle, 5 mars 1944: 6 sec.
– 31. Match de football sur la place d’appel (Appellplatz), avril / mai 1944: 2 min 04 sec.
– 32. Femmes faisant de l’exercice, avril / mai 1944: 1 min.
– 33. Soirée Revue – Bunter Abend – dans la Grande Salle, mars/avril 1944: 4 min 05 sec.
NL (dutch)
Hieronder de scènes van de Westerbork film (Ref.3) :
Westerbork Akte 1 (# 02-1167-01), 16 mm, zonder geluid, 21’05 “
– 1. Binnenkomend transport vanuit Amsterdam, maart 1944: 1 min 37 sec.
– 2. Binnenkomend transport vanuit kamp Vught, 20 maart 1944: 2 min 09 sec.
– 3. Uitgaand transport naar Bergen-Belsen en Auschwitz, 19 mei 1944: 4 min 41 sec.
– 4. Vliegtuig demontage, april / mei 1944: 11 min 23 sec.
Westerbork Akte 2 (# 02-1167-02), 16 mm, zonder geluid, 21’41 “
– 5. Demontage oude batterijen en productie nieuwe batterijen, april / mei 1944: 3 min 03 sec.
– 6. Scheiden van lagen zilverpapier, april / mei 1944: 1 min 22 sec.
– 7. Confectiebedrijf, april / mei 1944: 2 min. 51 sec.
– 8. Speelgoedfabriek, april / mei 1944: 3 min. 28 sec.
– 9. Meubelmakerij, april / mei 1944: 2 min. 14 sec.
– 10. Bankwerkerij / smederij, april / mei 1944, 2 min 47 sec.
– 11. Borstelmakerij, april / mei 1944: 43 sec.
– 12. Schoenmakerij, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 38 sec.
– 13. Tassenmakerij, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 09 sec.
– 14. Zolen en handschoenen vervaardigen, april / mei 1944: 33 sec.
– 15. Kousen weven en reparatie, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 25 sec.
Westerbork Akte 3 (# 02-1167-03), 16 mm, zonder geluid, 18’03 “
– 16. Manchetknopen fabriek, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 16 sec.
– 17. Kleermakerij, april / mei 1944: 32 sec.
– 18. Wasserij / strijkerij, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 18 sec.
– 19. Medisch laboratorium, april / mei 1944: 45 sec.
– 20. Tandheelkundige kliniek, april / mei 1944: 25 sec.
– 21. Lossen bouwmateriaal barakken / lossen lorries met bakstenen, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 33 sec.
– 22. Bouw broeikas / plantjes in kweekkas zetten en sproeien, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 46 sec.
– 23. Tocht met smalspoor treintje naar Oranjekanaal / heien van aanlegsteiger / lossen vrachtschip met stenen / lorries laden / terugkeren naar kamp, april / mei 1944: 4 min 33 sec.
– 24. Bezoek aan de kampboerderij, april / mei 1944: 4 min. 39 sec.
Westerbork Akte 4 (# 02-1167-04), 16 mm, zonder geluid, 21’30 “
– 25. Bezoek kampboerderij (vervolg), april / mei 1944: 2 min. 30 sec.
– 26. Terugkeren / bezoek akkerbouw / ploegen en aardappelen poten, april / mei 1944: 4 min. 20 sec.
– 27. Aankomst kamp / lossen van lorries met bakstenen, april / mei 1944: 1 min. 20 sec.
– 28. Bouw zuiveringsinstallatie, april / mei 1944: 52 sec.
– 29. Kappen, vellen, zagen van bomen in de buurt van Assen, april / mei 1944: 4 min. 50 sec.
– 30. Religieuze dienst in de Grote Zaal, 5 maart 1944: 6 sec.
– 31. Voetbalwedstrijd op de appèlplaats, april / mei 1944: 2 min. 04 sec.
– 32. Gymnastiek dames, april / mei 1944: 1 min.
– 33. Revue avond – Bunter Abend – in de Grote Zaal, maart/april 1944: 4 min 05 sec.
References
1 ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658
2. Unesco.org – Memory of the World – Westerbork films
(accessed 20190605)
3. Gerard Rossing and Koert Boersma, Kamp Westerbork Gefilmd (1997), pp. 86-88.
EN – ‘Westerbork Film’ , montage of the Westerbork reels 1-4 (RVD cat. 02-1167-01, 02-1167-02, 02-1167-03, 02-1167-04 courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | OpenImages). Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944 , Camp Westerbork, Netherlands.
Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0 .
FR – ‘Westerbork Film’, montage des bobines Westerbork 1 à 4 (RVD cat. 02-1167-01, 02-1167-02, 02-1167-03, 02-1167-04) grâce à Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | OpenImages). Images filmées par Rudolf Breslauer en 1944, Camp Westerbork, Pays-Bas.
Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0 .
NL – ‘Westerbork Film’ , montage van de Westerbork aktes 1-4 (RVD # 02-1167-01, 02-1167-02, 02-1167-03, 02-1167-04 met dank aan het Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | OpenBeelden). Gefilmd door Rudolf Breslauer in 1944 , Kamp Westerbork, Nederland.
Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0 .
Updates
20190605 – Updates including the other footage and more information will follow in both this post and new posts on the Settala.com site.
20190607 – French section added with Unesco introductory text plus ‘Les scènes du Westerbork film…’ ; references modified ; credits FR translation.
20190610 – Dutch section added with list of scenes based on Ref 3.
20190611 – Corrections language/translations all lists of scenes NL/EN/FR
20220604 – Format changes credit lines, and title change
The present has its past. Presentation of new unique book of a study of Transport XX by author Marc Michiels yesterday during the commemoration of Transport XX – May 5, 2019 in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium.
“Het XXste transport naar Auschwitz” (the XXth transport to Auschwitz) is the 2nd (revised and expanded) edition of this detailed dutch work (ISBN
9789059089808 ) published last month by the two authors Marc Michiels and Mark Van den Wijngaert.
On the night of April 19, 1943 the XXth Transport departs from the Dossinkazerne in Mechelen with 1631 Jewish men, women and children heading for Auschwitz. Armed with one revolver, and a storm lamp covered with red tissue paper, three young men manage to stop the train between Boortmeerbeek and Haacht and free seventeen prisoners.
This rescue operation by George Livschitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon is unique in the history of the Holocaust. Even before the train reaches the Belgian border, more than two hundred prisoners can escape. Some of them are shot, others are arrested again by the Nazis, but most escape the fate that awaits them in Auschwitz.
The book describes the escapes from the XXth Transport, how the transport was put together and what would happen to the vast majority of deportees. The countless testimonies confront the reader with the racial destructiveness of the Nazis and tell how some people barely managed to escape.
Marc is dreaming now of an English and or French translation of his dutch book…
Music by the Crescendo Boortmeerbeek Choir.
① memo 20190506 ~ XXth Transport to Auschwitz ~ Marc Michiels & Mark Van den Wijngaert
① memo 20190116 ~ En Route Transport XX Stop Kuttekoven ~ Short clip 7 years ago during reportage Jan 16 , 2012 – en route the former track of Transport XX to Auschwitz , looking for the actual site Simon Gronowski jumped from that death train , a moment before the train stopped near that little town of Kuttekoven , Belgium – together with Simon Gronowski and our friends : partisan Max De Vries who then had just turned 98 years old († 2014), Béatrice, and Marc Van Roosbroeck (vzw ‘de werkgroep 10 december 2008’) .
