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/
In the night of April 19-20 at 2 AM the Belgian partisans Romain Baplu, Albert Poncelet, Pieter Schepers (and M. Swinnen)* – operating in the Leuven Partisans group – attacked Transport XX just outside Leuven by building a barricade of tree trunks on the track at Korbeek-Lo, that slowed down the 20th Convoy of 1631 Jews in cattle cars, being deported from the Dossin barracks transit camp in Mechelen to Auschwitz , and thus helped many of the deportees to escape, jumping from the death train, between Korbeek-Lo and Tienen. That was the 2nd attack that night. Earlier , a first attack was performed before Leuven between Boortmeerbeek and Haacht by the three young Brussels’ heroes Youra Livschitz (Dr. Georges Livschitz ; aka Livchitz), Robert Maistriau, and Jean Franklemon, who liberated 17 people during an attack by opening one of the cattle cars.
Romain Baplu from Louvain (Leuven, Belgium) and Youra Livschitz (Dr. Georges Livschitz ; aka Livchitz) from Brussels were both reported on a list of hostages shot , published in the April 15, 1944 bulletin of News From Belgium : … “A List of Hostages Shot — The names of 15 hostages executed in Brussels after the murder of a German soldier have been published: Victor Jacobs, of Louvain; Michel Stockmans, of Hougaerde; Edmond Vertongen, of Linden; Désiré Regent, of Kessel-Loo; Julien Ameye, of Lans (France); Henri Michaux , of Herseaux; Maurice Knarren, of Brussels; Romain Baplu, of Louvain; Louis Dewolf, of Louvain; Désiré Lasterman, of Wesmael; Pierre Renis and Jean Simon, of Louvain; Léon Magne, of Nivelles; Joseph Nejszaten, of Sciepe; Albert Meurice, of St-Gilles, Brussels… … Eight patriots whose names follow were recently shot down by the Germans in occupied Belgium: Albert Romain, of Bièvres; Henry Albert, of Haut-Fays; and Dr. Georges Livchitz, René Lachaud, René Brams, Richard Lipper, Jean-Auguste Leyniers, and René Joseph Emile Denauw, all of Brussels.” News From Belgium Vol. IV, No. 15, April 15, 1944 | Belgian Information Center, New York (USA) | Harvard Law School Library | Digitized by Google. Film License info : Romain Baplu & Youra Livschitz • News From Belgium | 20230407 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode bb8fc1fd-444f-4bba-aecb-1d439b5bdb3e
Papal Zouave | 20220313 | 1-memo•com | February 1868, Papal State, Rome – Albert van der Burg, Zouave. Photo taken in Rome (according to my father, photographer not known).
Albert (my great-grandfather) joined as a 16 year old boy the Papal Zouaves from February 5, 1868 until 1870.
Mobilization Holland 1939 | Dutch cinema news August 1939. Just before Hitler invades Poland (Sep 1, 1939), the Dutch government can no longer ignore the danger of war, and pre-mobilization August 24, 1939 of Dutch military is followed by mobilization August 28. Source : Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (Aug 1939) | Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision ~ Film : Mobilization Holland 1939 | 20220307 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
