“From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg .
March 1, 2022 – Celebrating Robert Clary’s 96th birthday today announcing this special gift :
Watch online free now our full feature documentary “From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg.
Synopsis
The truly inspiring story of Holocaust Survivor, Robert Clary (born Robert Max Widerman, March 1, 1926 in the heart of Paris, France) who was liberated from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945 by the U.S.Army. Discovered singing in a Paris cabaret and brought to the United States where he became internationally known for his portrayal of Corporal Louie LeBeau on the long running hit TV show Hogan’s Heroes as well as for his Broadway, soap opera and movie roles, his record albums, paintings, autobiography and as an impassioned Holocaust spokesperson.
After the world premiere at the FLIFF (2018) in Hollywood (Florida, USA), and screening at the Paris (2021) Sydney & Melbourne (2021) and Berlin (2022) Lift-Off Film Festivals, the “The Robert Clary Story” film is now made public worldwide available for free watching via their YouTube channel by Richard Bloom Productions (richardbloomproductions•com).
Special thanks to Robert Clary, and Christopher Ray Allison (interview – cinematography) and Nathaniel Link (interview – sound) and many many others…
Watch Free Online – The Robert Clary Story | 20220301
Transport XX Take 1 | 20160127 – 20220127 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | SILENT FILM : One long take – slowed down – of the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels, Feb 2009.
Details : For this film I have chosen the first take of my Feb 2009 video recordings that were used before in the making of the short film “TRANSPORT XX – installation Brussels” – a work published online Apr 19, 2009 at michelvanderburg•com .
The TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels was organised from 27 January to 15 March 2009 by the BELvue Museum in collaboration with the JMDR / Dossin Barracks (Kazerne Dossin). The photographic portraits were displayed outside in the Royal park in Brussels (opposite the Royal Palace). In this way passers-by were confronted with 1,200 faces of the victims.
This event commemorated the release of Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland) on 27 January 1945.
Remastered 2022 edition of post ① memo 20160127 ~ Transport XX Take 1.
For optimal clarity this one-take is a 10 times slowed down version. Note : stabilization was not used in this edit , to prevent zooming in , and loss of portraits at the edge of the image.
Brussels’ Afghans Flee Taliban | 20210821 | Afghan refugee interview* by Kristen Cattell (USA) & Michel van der Burg (Holland) at the ‘Afghan camp’ inside the Béguinage Church in Brussels, Belgium – March 17, 2014 .
*One Afghan gentleman – who asked to remain anonymous – told us about his journey to Brussels. Interview anonymized by reconstruction using a disguised voice-over and visual and auditory imagery (organ Félix Snyers) captured March-April 2014 in the Church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage in Brussels.
“When you are working with America or other organizations in Afghanistan the Taliban is a big problem. I was with the forces in Kandahar Province for one year. This was a big, big company in Kandahar. After one year the Taliban send some letters to my family saying, ‘Your son is working for the enemy.’ And they said, ‘He will come and he will work with us.’ Then I went to my home. And after the Taliban found out about me, I came to Iran, then I went to Europe, and this country.”
NL vertaling – translation dutch :
“Als je voor Amerika of andere organisaties in Afghanistan werkt, is de Taliban een groot probleem. Ik was een jaar bij de strijdkrachten in de provincie Kandahar. Dit was een groot, groot bedrijf in Kandahar. Na een jaar stuurden de Taliban enkele brieven naar mijn familie waarin ze zeiden: ‘Uw zoon werkt voor de vijand.’ En ze zeiden: ‘Hij moet bij ons komen werken.’ Ik ging naar huis. En toen de Taliban van mij wist, ging ik naar Iran, en vertrok vandaar naar Europa, en dit land.”
Reportage by Kristen Cattell (USA) & Michel van der Burg (Holland).
Remastered 2nd edition of film first published in 2015 (Béguinage shadows | 20151115). Brussels’ Afghans Flee Taliban | 20210821 | michelvanderburg•com
Filming One Frame – Gregory Crewdson | 20210605 | 1-memo•com
Staged photography : props are being positioned…talents taak their places…
“It looks like a movie, sounds like a movie, and smells like a movie…but it isn’t…all of this activity is, to make a single photograph – by Gregory Crewdson…”.
Production documentary of photographer Gregory Crewdson working as a film director making ‘their’ photograph Untitled (Brief Encounter).
Extract recorded outside at night 6 June 2008 in Holland — while watching on my MacBook the 5th episode of BBC Four’s six-part series ‘The Genius of Photography’— aired by the Belgian-Flemish television channel Canvas.
END SLATE
Filming One Frame
Broadcast : Canvas, Belgium
Airdate : June 6, 2008
Documentary : Genius of Photography, BBC FOUR
Episode : Snap Judgements
Extract : Brief Encounter | Gregory Crewdson
Filming One Frame – Gregory Crewdson | 20210605 | 1-memo•com
(Recorded June 6, 2008 in Holland by Michel van der Burg)
In 1935 the nomadic Sinti families Steinbach were photographed by Dutch photographer Jan de Jong in their caravan camp on the heath around the Heksenberg hill in the southern Netherlands. Jan de Jong was working for De Spaarnestad publishing house of the dutch weekly, catholic, illustrated magazine “Katholieke Illustratie” , that used his high quality pictures in this May 1936 spread (REF 1), with a somewhat simple romanticized short story on their origin and culture – entitled ‘Zwervers van geboorte’ or ‘Born nomad’ (my translation).
Members of other Steinbach families, I recognized in this magazine spread in the caravan window image with caption ‘Buurpraatje’ (my tr. ‘Neighbor chat’), are Anna Steinbach in the window (born 24 March 1916 – killed 31 July 1944 in Auschwitz) talking with Maria Steinbach (born 6 Nov 1912 – killed 31 July 1944 in Auschwitz) .
The 15 year old Willy (Celestinus) Steinbach (born 13 Feb 1929 in Heerlen) was deported together with his 9-year old sister Settela ((Anna Maria) Steinbach (born 23 Dec 1934 in Buchten), their brothers, sisters (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 Auschwitz — and some, like Willy, later to other camps.
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 Mechelen to Auschwitz, were they were murdered on arrival.
Note : I found Jeanette on the Transport lists in the image bank of Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen – but not yet her mother Magdalena.
Settela’s father Moeselman (Heinrich) 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.
Their deporatation was filmed for the Westerbork Film by Rudolf Breslauer (REF 2).
This post is based on the story of the Steinbach families as researched in detail and published in book (REF 3) and film (REF 4) by Rob Hendrikx and Marouska Steinbach.
Update May 20, 2021 – Minor corrections in text , plus more detailed family information added. Poster image film replaced with clearer portrait image of Willy.
Below – because of space and linking constraints on social media – the references, source and full credits on websites only – eg. of Settela•Com
CREDITS & REFERENCES
1 – Source – photography Jan de Jong – in ‘Zwervers van Geboorte’ | Katholieke Illustratie 7 mei 1936 No 32 (Haarlem, Spaarnestad) via Delpher archive URL https://bit.ly/3f1jv90
2 – Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-1x
3 – Story based on book : 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/
4 – Story based on Films : ‘Settela en Willy’ by Rob Hendrikx & Marouska Steinbach | lifepowervideo YouTube user | (accessed 2021 May 19) Deel 1 Historische Gebeurtenissen link https://youtu.be/1wI9_vt9RlY | Deel 4 Holocaust Slachtoffers https://youtu.be/wVta6g6Mo1o
Willy & Settela | Born Nomad | 20210519 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Updates
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
Westerbork Film Football Edit | Edition 2021 | 20210517
SILENT FILM
The UNESCO – Memory of the World – ‘ Westerbork films’ dossier (REF 1) consists of both the actual film footage, as well as a dossier with the 1944 film plan, film script, title cards (intertitles), and a file with correspondence between the camp and the outside world on obtaining camera’s , film and film processing. That film footage was researched and presented before on Settela•com.
In a recent post (Westerbork Film Intertitles | 20210515; REF 2) the drawings for the title cards were shown in a short film I made, that also showed a few seconds of Breslauer’s archive film footage demonstrating that not all of his Westerbork Film is a compilation of rushes only -he also had done some experiments filming and animating title cards. Aside from that, the film was not edited, and title cards were not yet inserted.
Today, working on presenting that 1944 film plan and script, I noticed in that editing script (all written in the German language) the instruction “Untertitel: ( in einen rollenden Fussball einkopiert ) Appelplatz am Sonntag Nachmittag.” , in English : ‘Subtitle: copied into a rolling football – roll call area on Sunday afternoon’. That is the text on one of these title cards I worked with, and I had seen Breslauer’s filming and slow-motion experiments with a rolling football, on that same F1014 reel that was used for his animation tests (REF 3). This has been described also in the 1997 dutch Westerbork film dossier analysis by Broersma & Rossing (REF 4) – a book I studied 2 years ago – and details I re-discovered later today. Tomorrow these authors will present a new edition (dutch), available later this month.
Breslauer never got the chance to try copying that title card on the rolling ball – I did today : a little digital experiment of copying that title card Appellplatz am Sonntag Nachmittag on the rolling ball. Just 4 seconds, repeated 4 times in this little film : Westerbork Film Football Edit.
2- Westerbork Film Intertitles | 20210515 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 17) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-3e
3 – Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 15) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
4 – ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658). Note, a new edition will be available May 2021 (editor Gorcum B.V., Koninklijke van; ISBN 9789023257622 ) – not yet published.
Notes : Both Appelplatz and Appellplatz are used in German and in script and title card
Credit
Thanks to ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658). Note, a new edition will be available May 2021 (editor Gorcum B.V., Koninklijke van; ISBN 9789023257622 )
Film footage source : Filmed by Rudolf Breslauer, retrieved from : Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 17) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
Westerbork Film Football Edit | Edition 2021 | 20210517 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Updates
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
Westerbork Film Intertitles | 20210515 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•com
SILENT FILM
Westerbork Films Dossier
The UNESCO – Memory of the World – ‘ Westerbork films’ dossier (REF 1) consists of both the actual film footage, as well as a dossier with the 1944 film plan, film script, title cards (intertitles), and a file with correspondence between the camp and the outside world on obtaining camera’s , film and film processing. That film footage was researched and presented before on Settela•com.
These Westerbork film documents – the film script etc – complement the Westerbork film footage presented earlier – a first full version (RVD) of the Westerbork Film posted in 2019 (20190605) and the complete UNESCO album of all known footage shot by inmate Werner Rudolf Breslauer in the Westerbork camp in 1944, posted early 2020 (REF 2).
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.
More information on the history and origin of the film translated from the french UNESCO registration is posted later.
Title Cards
Here, in this short film, the title cards are presented. Title cards referenced in the UNESCO registry, and prepared in the camp in 1944 for the Westerbork film. The name of the artist drawing these cards is not known, I guess. Digital scans of 11 different letter cards were retrieved from the public online archive of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the dutch National Archive (Nationaal Archief) – full info in CREDITS.
Film Sections
In this film these title cards are used in different ways, shown in 5 sections. The arrangement of the cards was chosen by me.
1 : ‘ORIGINALS’ – TRANSLATION IN SUBTITLES – The first section shows english subtitles with the restored scan images of the orignal drawings made in Camp Westerbork. The restoration includes exposure adjustment, crop, and if necessary rotation and flip horizontal or vertical of the supplied scans.
2: NEGATIVES – The second section shows the same images, now as negatives (white on black), the way title cards are usually shown in movies, and Breslauer did too while working on the Westerbork Film – see below on section 4.
3) The 3rd sequence of the title cards shows the negatives again, now animated with cross-overs (fade in- and out) between the negatives.
Trickaufnahmen – trick shots – was mentioned in the film plan (discussed further in a later post). Trick shots like slow-motion and similar animation work by Breslauer is actually found on the Westerbork film reel F1014 with so-called ‘Residual material’. This was previously reported in the 1997 edition of the book ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Broersma & Rossing (REF 3). That reel’s footage, to me feels like this was Breslauer’s working material for tests – so a test reel, rather than rest reel.
4 : BRESLAUER’S 1944 ANIMATION TEST – This 4th segment shows the above discussed footage of Breslauer’s test work with a title card’s negative on film, as well as his animation of cards with numbers of ‘input’ and outgoing deportations. That animation uses drawings , images , not found in the NIOD archive – showing statistics for deportations to Bergen-Belsen 3029 , and Lager Vught 897 . This Westerbork film footage was retrieved from : Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 (20190616) Michel van der Burg | Settela.com (REF 4).
5 : ANIMATION COLLAGE – Here I combined the animation made in section 3 of this film, with the 1944 animation footage of Breslauer – all edited here again to conform.
