Short impression of Viviane telling her story April 2023 in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium, at the 80th anniversary of the attack on Transport XX near Boortmeerbeek — the Twentieth Train heading for Auschwitz, the night of April 19-20, 1943. Viviane escaped from Transport XX in the womb of her pregnant mother Isabella Weinreb-Castegnier who jumped from this death train, with the help of Elias Gnazik, shortly after the 2nd attack on this train near Bierbeek, Belgium. Viviane was born 6 months later October 30, 1943 in Brussels … and celebrates her 80th birthday today, October 30, 2023, in LA, USA 😉 Music : Al Kol Ele by Crescendo Boortmeerbeek Choir .
Full story available in free e-Book download :
Viviane Yarom-Castegnier & Michel van der Burg. Viviane’s Story: Escape from Transport XX… Born 6 Months Later [e-Book]. Boskoop, Miracles.Media, 2019. Distribution [ISBN (ePUB) : 978-94-93147-00-3 | ISBN (pdf) : 978-94-93147-01-0]. URL https://miracles.media/vivianesstory/
Citation : Viviane – 80 Years After Escape From Transport XX | 20231030 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | TakeNode 84175450-c147-4fd9-9039-8ca85995ff46
From the old forest They dragged the night, And the wind danced in your hair.
Your fingers die in the evening, Already in your sky the stars wander.
From “Far-away-from-love” they dragged the night.
My shadow dances in your dream.
Yves Darriet (Pseudonym Jean Roland)
Berceuse by Yves Darriet , from Anthologie des poèmes de Buchenwald , collected by André Verdet in Buchenwald (Ref 1), in a 2013 German translation by Wulf Kirsten and Annette Seemann : Wiegenlied (Ref 2).
Wiegenlied – Reading by Susanne Marie Wrage — an actor with a background in Documentary theater – in the June 2013 Passage – Lyrik aktuell broadcast by Radio SRF 2 Kultur (Ref 3, 4) .
Berceuse
De la vieille forêt Ils ont portè la nuit, Et le vent a dansé dans tes cheveux.
Tes doigts meurent au soir, Dans ton ciel déjà Les ètoiles cheminent.
De plus loin que l’amour Ils ont porté la nuit.
Mon ombre danse dans ton rêve.
Wiegenlied
Aus dem alten Wald Schleppten sie die Nacht her, Und der Wind tanzte in deinem Haar.
Deine Finger sterben am Abend, Schon in deinem Himmel Wandern die Sterne.
Von «Weit-weg-von-der-Liebe» Schleppten sie die Nacht her.
Mein Schatten tanzt in deinem Traum.
REFS
1. Anthologie des poèmes de Buchenwald by André Verdet (R. Laffont) 1946
2. Wulf Kirsten und Annette Seemann, Hrsg. und Übers., Der gefesselte Wald: Gedichte aus Buchenwald, Französisch-Deutsche Ausgabe, Mainzer Reihe N.F. 11 (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2013).
Rhythmus was a jazz orchestra in the Buchenwald concentration camp in which a total of 23 musicians from 9 different countries played together from 1943 until the liberation. Czech prisoners around Jiří Žák took the initiative to found this orchestra in the summer of 1943.
Among the French prisoners that later joined, were Yves Darriet – the bandleader , who wrote most arrangements , and Robert Widerman – the band’s singer , who made a career as Robert Clary on Broadway after the war.
Two programs are known to have been performed in November 1944 and April 19, 1945, i.e. 8 days after the liberation of the camp (Ref 1) , including compositions by Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and pieces by Cole Porter, Fats Waller, Glenn Miller and Louis Armstrong. In The Mood was performed even though this music was banned in Nazi Germany.
Ref. 3 – Jazz im KZ Buchenwald – das gab es wirrklich! | weimarer-rendezvous | Sep 25, 2022 | URL https://youtu.be/HX4X7TJ19nQ
„Rhythmus“ – Jazz im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald
At the April 11, 2022 event ‘„Rhythmus“ – Jazz im Konzentrationslager Buchenwald’ — in the Notenbank in Weimar, Germany (Ref 2, 3) — the Big Band and a jazz ensemble of the Hochschule für Musik under the direction of Prof. Gero Schmidt-Oberländer performed 9 or 10 pieces from the programs. In addition biographies of the prisoners in the Buchenwald Jazz Orchestra were made visible using excerpts from their letters and reports.
The French singer Robert Widerman ( Robert Clary ) was shown in a clip (Ref 4) from the documentary film From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story (Ref 5). Robert Clary (March 1, 1926 – Nov 16, 2022) survived thanks to several prisoners, including Yves Darriet (pseudonym Jan Rolan, Jean Roland), Claude Francis-Boeuf, and Jiří Žák. (Ref 6)
5. From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg | 2023 Edition | 20230202 | URL https://youtu.be/0tKc5T-Sw-E
Images from the Westerborkfilm have been used countless times in documentaries and films about the Second World War. Here images screening in the virtual opera PUSH – based on the story of Simon Gronowski – an 11 year old Jewish boy who was pushed from the train – Transport XX – by his mother on the way to Auschwitz — Video clip https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxsM6Rj_HB0xEh4TksbjhIm4EzY81dc4H0
A virtual performance, during the April 2020 Corona virus lockdown, of the epilogue of the community opera PUSH , entitled : Ma Vie N’est Que Miracles | My life is only miracles – hosted by composer Howard Moody. It premiered on the night of the 19th April 2020, exactly 77 years after three Brussels resistance heroes stopped the Nazi train Transport XX, transporting 1600 Jewish deportees to Auschwitz, and more than 200 prisoners escaped from the train before the German border. Info : michelvanderburg.com/2020/04/19 .
Images from the Westerborkfilm have been used countless times in documentaries and films about the Second World War.
Here Westerborkfilm images – clips – screening semi-permanent ten years ago (Feb. 2013) in a museum introduction film (on holocaust, genocides, discrimination, diversity, rights) on one of the huge columns in the entrance hall of the Kazerne Dossin museum in Mechelen, Belgium (a few months after opening of the new Kazerne Dossin building). Note, shortly after this outbound deportation transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, had left the Westerbork transit camp on May 19, 1944, the train paused at the nearby railway station of the dutch town Assen, where train cars were added from Belgian Transport XXV (25) with 508 deportees, Jews and the Roma deportee Stevo Caroli, from transit camp Kazerne Dossin (Dossin barracks) in Mechelen, and this combined transport with Jews, Sinti and Roma, including Settela Steinbach, continues to the east…to the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps. Stevo Caroli survives Auschwitz-Birkenau. After returning to Belgium, Stevo Caroli’s request for a certificate, necessary for the compensation for political deportees or work refusers, is refused by the Belgian Aliens Police for racial reasons ( kazernedossin.memorial/biografie/stevo-karoli/ ).
Sally’s Invasion Star | 20230625 | Family Archive | Miracles.Media | Invasion Star on USA Army vehicle, with “lazy circle”
June 25, 2023 — Contact between the families of Sally and Nelly is re-established !
Sally Frankenthal – Kalwary was living in Antwerp in the 90s when she requested Yad Vashem a Righteous medal posthumous for “Nelly Quintard” .. the lady that had been hiding Sally Frankenthal and her parents during World War II. However, Mrs. Sally Kalwary – Frankenthal was not able to find Nelly’s family …. and the medal went to the Kazerne Dossin museum in Mechelen.
This month contact was re-established with Sally’s family. Unfortunately, too late to meet Sally Frankenthal – Kalwary, who died three years ago. Sally’s family shared photo’s taken of Sally before and after her hiding — both with stars…posted in today’s update of the Story of Righteous Nelly • Quintart aka Quintard .
References
Story of Righteous Nelly • Quintart aka Quintard | 20230526 | Renée Cassin & Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2023/05/26
Coincidence — Today I noticed at the Kazerne Dossin facebook page, that last week has been “International Archives Week”.
The stars are aligned…
For over 20 years Kazerne Dossin has had in its archives the Righteous Medal with the name ‘Nelly Quintard’.
We, by coincidence also last week, contacted Kazerne Dossin, and shared our new findings with their Archive team, on this medal – one of their many archive items ….!
The story on Righteous Nelly , discovered together with Nelly’s godchild Mrs Renée Cassin , was published last month in the post titled:
Story of Righteous Nelly • Quintart aka Quintard
[ URL michelvanderburg.com/2023/05/26 ]