Deportation of Dutch Roma to Auschwitz – 19 May 1944 • 9-year-old Anna Maria (Settela) Steinbach was deported together with 244 other Roma from Westerbork to Auschwitz (1,2) • Source : Settela•Com • Collection Auschwitz Museum • URL https://fb.watch/Hgg5lusc-8/
The Auschwitz Museum acquired the short film ‘Settela’ from Settela•Com (1) in the Auschwitz Memorial Collection (3), and is succesfully screening the film each year since 2019 on the 19th May at the Auschwitz Memorial / Muzeum Auschwitz facebook page .
Last year’s post of the film ‘Settela’ , 19th May 2025 at the Auschwitz Memorial / Muzeum Auschwitz facebook page, accumulated by now one million views, and over 3000 comments (Image 1MEMO_20260522).
The film was created in an attempt to keep the scene on screen longer on the one hand, and to preserve the natural and historical original on the other. Thus a compilation was created, showing the same scene twice. The film ends with the original 3 seconds clip selected from the Westerbork film footage shot by Jewish prisoner Rudolf Breslauer (4), and the film starts with that same clip , digitally slowed down 10× in post-production.
This film was created and first online in 2017 (5) , and published (antedated) as the first post (1) shortly after the start May 19, 2019, of the online journal Settela•Communications — short Settela•Com (6).
More on the Roma in Auschwitz , online at the Auschwitz Museum (7).
Citation info : Settela Film Auschwitz Museum • 20260522 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0 | URL https://settela.com/2026/05/22
Settela Steinbach — The Girl with the Headscarf • 1MEMO_20260519_1 • Settela•Com • Frame from camera original film reel of the Westerborkfilm (1).
On May 19, 1944, at the Westerbork transit camp, a glimpse of Sinti girl Settela Steinbach wearing a headscarf appears between the sliding doors of a cattle car awaiting deportation to Auschwitz (1,2,3). In May 1945, her father, Moeselman Steinbach, wrote to “Repatriation” in the Netherlands: “…I very politely request you to inform me whether my wife and 10 children have arrived, or only children (Gypsy children) from the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.” (4).
The 9-year-old dutch Sinti-girl Anna Maria ‘Settela’ Steinbach peeks outside , at the last moment just before the sliding door is closed , standing inside a cattle car with 74 people on May 19 , 1944 in the Westerbork transit camp in Holland , when this deportation train leaves for Auschwitz-Birkenau – where Settela is murdered a few months later in one of the gas chambers (5).
While Settela peeks outside , her mother cries behind her in that cattle car : “Get out of there, or soon your head gets in between!”
She is wearing a headscarf made from a torn sheet because the Nazis shaved her head upon arrival at Westerbork transit camp on May 16, 1944, following the “Gypsy raid” carried out that same day at the Zwaaikom caravan site in Eindhoven, the Netherlands (6).
Settela Film • 20220630
Settela was filmed only a few seconds by the Jewish prisoner filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer as part of a documentary film being made in 1944 on the Westerbork camp .
Those seconds , also in slow-motion are shown in the 2022 Settela Film • 20220630 (7)
The toddler Settela in the arms of her older sister Elisabeth Steinbach at the Heksenberg Sinti caravan site in 1935 • Photo Jan de Jong • 1MEMO_20260518_4
Anna Maria (‘Settela’) Steinbach was born 23 December 1934 in Buchten, Netherlands, and photographed at age ~1 , in the arms of her older sister Elisabeth Steinbach, with others of the Steinbach family, and other families, at the nearby Sinti caravan site ‘Heksenberg’, October 1935, by photographer Jan de Jong (8) • 1MEMO_20260518_4
Settela was deported together with her brothers and sisters (Willy “Celestinus”, Willem, Elisabeth, Johanna, Philibert, Florentina, Willem, Anna), and mother Toetela (Emilia) Steinbach (born 23 March 1902 in Antwerp, Belgium), with other Steinbach and other nomad families – all together ca 245 Sinti and Roma and ca 450 Jews – on May 19th 1944 from the dutch Camp Westerbork to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen camps (5,6).
Toetela’s eldest child Moekela (Magdalena; born 14 Sep 1922) had gone to Belgium and had been deported earlier – 15 Jan 1944 – with her 6 months old baby Jeanette – Toetela’s granddaughter – on the Z-Transport from transit camp Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen to Auschwitz, were they were murdered on arrival.
Settela’s father Heinrich (‘Moeselman’) Steinbach (born Nov 11, 1901 in Gründorf in Germany) died alone of grief June 6, 1946 in Maastricht in the Netherlands – his wife and 10 children had not survived the camps.
To : “Repatriation” in Maastricht (Netherlands) — “Dear Sirs, I very politely request you to inform me whether my wife and 10 children have arrived, or only children (Gypsy children) from the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. From May 15, 1944, my children and wife were taken there; no Jews. And Weiss had to come along too. — Heinrich Steinbach. Caravan site Eindhoven , North Brabant” • 1MEMO_20260519_2 • Settela•Com
One year earlier , May 22, 1945, two weeks after the liberation of Holland, Heinrich Steinbach — living at the caravan site in Eindhoven (North Brabant, Netherlands) — inquires about the fate of his wife and ten children on a postcard written to the “Repatriation” in Maastricht (Netherlands). The text on the postcard reads — translated from dutch (4) :
“Dear Sirs, I very politely request you to inform me whether my wife and 10 children have arrived, or only children (Gypsy children) from the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
From May 15, 1944, my children and wife were taken there; no Jews. And Weiss had to come along too.
Heinrich Steinbach. Caravan site Eindhoven, North Brabant”
4 – May 1945 Postcard Heinrich Steinbach • 1MEMO_20260519_2 • Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Source : Collectie HCL, archief Militair Gezag, Maastricht.
‘Moeselman’ Heinrich Steinbach — living at the caravan site in Eindhoven (North Brabant, Netherlands) — inquires about the fate of his wife and ten children on a postcard written to the “Repatriation” in Maastricht (Netherlands). The dutch text on the postcard reads :
“Geachte Heeren, Ik verzoek u zeer beleeft om mijn te willen berichten op mijn vrouw en 10 kinders aan gekomen zein of alleen kinders (zigeunerkinders) uit contrasie kamp uaschwietsch Polen.
Van 15 mei 1944 zein mijn kindeers en vrouw naar toe gebracht, geen joden. En ook Weiss moet ook mee komen. Heinrich Steinbach. Woonwagenkamp Eindhoven N.B.”
Kazerne Dossin • Transport XX • 1MEMO_20260420 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • Today 15 years ago, the night of April 20, 2011 , at the Courtyard of the former Dossin barracks (Kazerne Dossin) , Mechelen, Belgium , preparing for my 1st interview with Simon Gronowski scheduled the next day, April 21, 2011 at his office in Brussels — while working on our documentary film Transport XX to Auschwitz.
You’ve Got Mail • Transport XX • 1MEMO_20260419 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • Today 15 years ago, on April 19, 2011 , Simon Gronowski mailed me photo’s in preparation for our 1st interview scheduled April 21, 2011 at his office in Brussels, working on our documentary film Transport XX to Auschwitz.
Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Skating Tour) Thursday 22 januari 1942 with extremely low temperatures, ranging from -33 Celcius at sunrise to -15 later that the day. Despite the German occupation, a record number of participants showed up at the start, 95% of whom managed to reach the finish. After the race, the Leeuwarden Diaconessen Hospital saw an influx of cold-related injuries. Many skaters suffered frostbite, including frostbitten eyes, ears, toes, hands, and even genitals. Some had to undergo amputations of their toes. Three tour riders later died in the hospital as a result of their frostbite injuries. (1). Nazi-approved dutch cinema news ‘Tobis Nieuws’.
Film source: Dutch newsreel by Polygoon (producer) in collaboration with the German Tobis Film for the Nazi controlled cinema news ‘Tobis Nieuws’ (Feb 1942). Courtesy of Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Open Images).
Citation info : Elfstedentocht 1942 Eleven Cities Skating Tour • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • @1MEMO 20260110 • TakeNode c7238e03-68b0-452e-8d16-12d0f0adab74
Film source: Dutch newsreel by Polygoon (producer) in collaboration with the German Tobis Film for the Nazi controlled cinema news ‘Tobis Nieuws’ (Feb 1942). Courtesy of Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Open Images).
Citation info : Ski Holland Extreme Winter 1942 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • @1MEMO 20260109 • TakeNode 31868145-2645-41de-a3e2-7154313ff6ad
Jun 21, 2007, I started pioneering at YouTube, creating Channel012. The first YouTube video ‘Fire Breather’ was shot at a 4:3 aspect ratio (640×480 pixels) and produced at a 16:9 aspect ratio with black bars for my first YouTube upload on Dec 30, 2007.
Unlisted ‘Fire Breather • 2nd Edition’
Next a 2nd edition of ‘Fire Breather’ was produced at the original 4:3 aspect ratio, and uploaded the next month, Jan 18, 2008. YouTube displayed that 2nd edition at a higher quality. Sometime later though I decided to change visibility of that 2nd edition to ‘unlisted’ in order to preserve and favor the 1st edition views count.
Lost Forgotten Film
More recently that forgotten unlisted 2nd edition video appeared to be lost somehow…until I learned today that YouTube had changed visibility in 2021 of all unlisted videos uploaded before 2017 to ‘private’ automatically for security reasons with a worldwide system change.
Today I changed visibility at YouTube of that 2nd edition (video shown above) to public.
