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
Sailing to Gaza Joeri Puissant tried to stop his son Isja (26) from sailing to Gaza. But Isja felt “obliged” to join — for his Palestinian friends and his distant relatives who were victims of the Holocaust. Source – Annebeau Hofkens | Belgian news De Standaard , May 21, 2026
NL – Joeri Puissant probeerde zijn zoon Isja (26) tegen te houden om mee naar Gaza te varen. Maar Isja voelde zich “verplicht” mee te doen: voor zijn Palestijnse vrienden en zijn verre familieleden die het slachtoffer werden van de Holocaust.
Relatives Resistance
Okselkinderen (Marie Meeusen) dutch poem dedicated to Willy Souritz (Transport VI) and Pauline Souritz Transport XX) — great-uncle and great-aunt murdered in Auschwitz
NL – Okselkinderen (Marie Meeusen) gedicht opgedragen aan Willy Souritz (Transport VI) en Pauline Souritz (Transport XX) — oudoom en oudtante , vermoord in Auschwitz.
Midnight, May 20, 2011 in Kuttekoven, Belgium. Behind the scenes. Making of documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” . Reconstruction of the scene where Simon Gronowski escapes from the 20th Convoy in the early morning (around 2-3 a.m.) of April 20, 1943 . https://michelvanderburg.com/2013/04/19/transport-xx-to-auschwitz/
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.
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.”
Short impression (some clips) of my visit on Friday evening, April 11, 2025, to the Atelier Marcel Hastir in Brussels, at the start and closing of ‘Auschwitz, our story’— documentary and lecture by Herman Teerhöfer, with the participation of Natalia and Julia Kotarba of the Karski Quartet. Herman Teerhöfer of the Smolinski Foundation interviewed 91 Auschwitz survivors over the past fourteen years. Through his documentary Auschwitz, Our Story, he explains how they managed to survive Auschwitz spiritually, oscillating between hope and fear.
Citation info : Auschwitz Survivors In Brussels • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media • @1MEMO 20250418 • TakeNode 9eeb9646-f769-41d6-9b97-ccf27bf5c7a5
Almost certainly, three Jewish people have been recognized in the unique Westerbork film from 1944 (1). This time it concerns the 9-year-old boy Israël Wijnschenk, his father Max Wijnschenk, and his grandmother Betje Kokernoot-van Furth, who all lived in Utrecht (Holland).
Last week, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS (2) reported the news from the Utrecht (Dutch) news site Nieuws030 (3) that it is very likely that three people were recognized again in this film made by the Jewish prisoner and filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer showing the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti by train in Camp Westerbork on May 19, 1944.
Image researcher Koen Hulsbos — who previously identified an Amsterdam couple in this deportation train (4) — thought he recognized the young Israël Wijnschenk, a pupil at the time of the Joodse (Jewish) School Utrecht, and presented this to Victor Frederik, researcher of the Joodse School (5,6). The boy, the man, and the woman seem to belong together, and were recognized from family photos, also by family members.
It is certain that Max and his wife Chel (not in the images) returned to Utrecht after the war, their children Israël and his sister Kitty were murdered. Grandma Betje was also gassed in Auschwitz.
A portrait of Israël Wijnschenk is shown at the site of Joods Monument (7).
According to the transport list, there were two other children in that wagon, Joseph Beugeltas (11 years old) and Manfred Studzinsky (7 years old). Joseph Beugeltas appeared to have blond hair, and could not have been it (6). To be completely sure, the researchers are still looking for a photo of Manfred Studzinsky, for comparison…
