Corfu Jews Camp | 20220105 | 1-memo•com | The Old Fortress filmed Autumn 2021, Corfu, Greece. June 1944 the Nazis corralled approximately 1800 of the 2,000 Jews of Corfu in this Old Fortress for deportation to the Auschwitz Birkenau extermination camp. Approximately 200 Corfiot Jews, mostly women, managed to avoid the German roundup and escaped to villages in the island’s interior.
Expected soon : The Jews Of Corfu documentary by Mirjan Gjergjevica & Maria Boua | Mirjan Films @thejewsofcorfudoc
“From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg .
Watch now online … a truly inspiring film about a Hollywood legend ….
Click ⓘ right corner YouTube screen – for link to the site of the Sydney & Melbourne Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 Monday 22nd November – 20th December
Features films
The Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 is screening 41 feature films The Robert Clary Story is Episode 19 .
Festival Tickets
Get a ‘Features’ ticket with access to all the 41 Features from the Lift-Off Film site , which also allows voting (2 votes) for the films.
Robert Clary
The producers of Transport XX to Auschwitz and Defending Holocaust History are proudly bringing to the screen, the inspirational film, From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story, about a Hollywood legend, an internationally known actor, Broadway star, singer, artist, author and Holocaust lecturer.
Mr. Clary is widely known for his role as Corporal Lebeau on the long running TV series Hogan’s Heroes. What is little known by the public is that Robert’s real last name is Widerman, and in 1942 at the age of 16, he and thirteen members of his family were rounded up in Paris, France and deported by the Nazis to concentration camps. He was the only one to survive, having endured 31 months in four Nazi camps and a death march until his liberation from Buchenwald by the U.S. Army on April 11, 1945. He was discovered singing in a Paris nightclub in 1947, signed to a recording contract and brought to the United States in 1949 where he met Merv Griffin, who introduced him to Eddie and Ida Cantor and their daughter, Natalie, who he would later marry.
USHMM (news facebook Nov 21, 2021) – “That was second nature with me—singing, dancing, clowning around. And that helped me tremendously when I was deported.”
Before Robert Clary was a star in the 1960s TV hit, “Hogan’s Heroes,” playing a French POW, he survived several concentration camps.
In 1942, at age 16, Robert, who was a born to a Jewish family in France, was deported along with his parents and several other family members.
Robert’s singing talent became a means of survival. He remembers performing for inmates at one camp he was sent to and having the SS come to watch at another. He concluded that maybe “they had such a terrible life hitting us and killing us that they wanted to be entertained too.”
As Soviet troops approached German-occupied Poland in January 1945, Robert was imprisoned at Blechhammer, a sub-camp of Auschwitz. Blechhammer was evacuated. The SS forced prisoners on a days-long death march to the Gross Rosen concentration camp. Robert was then evacuated by train to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
After Buchenwald was liberated in April 1945, Robert reunited with some of his siblings who had survived in France. He later learned that his parents and the other family members he had been deported with had not survived. In 1949, he immigrated to the United States.
After years as a recording artist, he was cast as Corporal Louis LeBeau on “Hogan’s Heroes.” Many questioned how Robert felt about his role on the show, particularly because he didn’t speak openly about his Holocaust experience until the 1980s. He later noted how humor helped him survived.
“For the ten minutes that I worked, or the 15 minutes that I sang, they forgot where they were—and that was the most important thing. And that’s what makes me—being alive.”
The World Premiere was November 13, 2018 at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in Cinema Paradiso, Hollywood, Fl (USA).
Earlier this year the film was online at the Paris Lift–Off Film Festival, and now again available worldwide online at the Sydney & Melbourne Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 from today Monday 22nd November till Monday 20th December.
The film is also available at the holocaust centers USHMM and Yad Vashem.
Promo film (20211122) by Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media
Doctor Honoris Causa | Connect the World | 20211119 | 1-memo•com
At yesterday’s ‘Night at the Opera’ in the Brussels opera house De Munt | La Monnaie , five new honorary doctorates were welcomed to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel community by rector Caroline Pauwels : the American science communicator Ann Druyan, artist William Kentridge, Brussels politician Pierre Kompany and world renowned immune scientists Antoni Ribas and Thierry Boon Falleur. The spotlight was also on the honorary doctors Koenraad Tinel en Simon Gronowski for their extraordinary friendship.
Partners were the Université libre de Bruxelles, Erasmus University College Brussels, Ghent University, the University of the Western Cape of South Africa, the Brussels Parliament, our university hospital UZ Brussel, the VUB Orchestra directed by Jurgen Wayenberg and guest conductor, composer, Dirk Brossé.
Here a short film of the group scene photographed at the closing of the ceremony.
“From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg | Selected for Sydney, Australia Lift-Off Film festival Nov 21-Dec 13, 2021
Australia now too !
“From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” — A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg — Selected for Sydney, Australia Film festival Nov 21 -Dec 13 , 2021. Hogan’s Heroes with Robert Clary was a big hit in Australia and Robert Clary made several visits there.
Watch full film, From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story – now online at Sydney & Melbourne Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 – Features – Episode 19
Watch now online at the Paris Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 a truly inspiring film about a Hollywood legend ….
“From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg .
The producers of Transport XX to Auschwitz and Defending Holocaust History are proudly bringing to the screen, the inspirational film, From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story, about a Hollywood legend, an internationally known actor, Broadway star, singer, artist, author and Holocaust lecturer.
Click ⓘ right corner YouTube screen – for link to the Robert Clary Story full film online at the Vimeo channel of the Paris Lift-Off Film Festival 2021.
Tickets Festival Site
Choose the FEATURES section for access to all 35 films, and option to vote for your favorite film …
Mr. Clary is widely known for his role as Corporal Lebeau on the long running TV series Hogan’s Heroes. What is little known by the public is that Robert’s real last name is Widerman, and in 1942 at the age of 16, he and thirteen members of his family were rounded up in Paris, France and deported by the Nazis to concentration camps. He was the only one to survive, having endured 31 months in four Nazi camps and a death march until his liberation from Buchenwald by the U.S. Army on April 11, 1945. He was discovered singing in a Paris nightclub in 1947, signed to a recording contract and brought to the United States in 1949 where he met Merv Griffin, who introduced him to Eddie and Ida Cantor and their daughter, Natalie, who he would later marry.
Promo film (20211027) by Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media
Updates
October 29, 2021 – Added link to festival site . Link to getting PARIS LIFT-OFF FILM FESTIVAL tickets – via the Festival site (not direct via Vimeo). Next choose the Features section (35 films including Robert Clary story) … This should also allow you to vote for the films
QUATRE-MAINS Filmmaker Lander Haverals
Report (20210913) Miracles•Media
Q&A with Lander Haverals at the Belgian pre-premiere of ‘QUATRE-MAINS’ Sep 12, 2021 in Studio SILO (De chinezen) in Leuven, Belgium.
Child of victims and child of perpetrators, yet they became friends for life. Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel lost almost everything in World War II, but found each other.
Documentary by Lander Haverals and Simon Demeulemeester, and producer Neelke Nijs | De chinezen. @landerhaverals
Welkom.
We gaan de film QUATRE-MAINS vertonen.
Dat is een film die ik samen gemaakt heb met co-regisseur Simon Demeulemeester.
Simon is journalist voor de Knack [ Belgian (Flemish) weekly news magazine ].
Die heeft mij aangesproken, met een toch wel heel merkwaardig verhaal, vond ik zelf.
Het verhaal van Koenraad Tinel en Simon Gronowski.
Die allebei jonge gastjes waren, toen in Wereldoorlog II…
en van een heel andere afkomst, de oorlog hebben meegemaakt.
En daar vandaag de dag over getuigen, over de toch wel bijzondere vriendschap.
… De film zoveel mogelijk uit te puren,
omdat het verhaal daar om vroeg.
Om het eigenlijk zo simpel, eenvoudig, en puur mogelijk te vertellen.
Oordeel vooral zelf, of dat het gelukt is.
Dan gaan we nu de film kijken.
QUATRE – MAINS
En ze gaan met hun verhaal ook veel rond hè…
naar lezingen, naar scholen…
Koenraad als kunstenaar.
Welnu , er komt nog een boek nu , in het najaar.
Het is eigenlijk daardoor dat we deze film gemaakt hebben. Dat komt komt in het najaar 2022.
[ Publiek ] Door wie is dat dan geschreven?
Door Simon Demeulemeester, die ook met de film geholpen heeft.
[ Publiek ] Ah ! Die van Knack, ja.
Die van Knack, ja.
In Amerika wordt de film al op festivals getoond.
[ Publiek ] Je hebt al een prijs hè!
In Frankrijk is het beste Europese film geworden.
[ Best European Independent Film 2021 op het ÉCU festival ]
Maar in Belgie dus nog niet [vertoond].
Hij wordt gedistribueerd door Dalton Distribution…
en de bedoeling is dat we hem uitbrengen samen met het boek.
QUATRE-MAINS Filmmaker Lander Haverals
Reportage (20210913) Miracles•Media
Q&A met Lander Haverals op de Belgische pre-premiere van ‘QUATRE-MAINS’ op 12 Sep 2021 in Studio SILO (De chinezen) in Leuven, Belgium..
EN CC Translation (added Sep 14th)
Welcome.
We are going to show the film QUATRE-MAINS.
That is a film I made together with co-director Simon Demeulemeester.
Simon is a journalist for the Knack [ Belgian (Flemish) weekly news magazine ].
He came to me with a very remarkable story, I thought.
The story of Koenraad Tinel and Simon Gronowski.
Both were young lads, back in World War II…
and of very different origins, experienced the war.
And testify about that today, about the special friendship.
… To purify the film as much as possible,
because the story called for it.
To actually tell it as simple, and pure as possible.
Decide for yourself whether it worked or not.
Now let’s watch the movie.
QUATRE – MAINS
And they go around with their story a lot too…
to lectures, to schools…
Koenraad as an artist.
Well, there’s also a book coming, in the fall.
That’s actually why we made this film.
That will come in the fall of 2022.
[ Audience ] Who wrote that then?
By Simon Demeulemeester, who also helped with the film.
[ Audience ] Ah ! That [journalist] from Knack, yes.
From Knack, yes.
[ Belgian (Flemish) weekly news magazine ]
The film is already being shown at festivals in America.
[ Audience ] You already got a prize, don’t you!
In France it has become the best European film.
[ Best European Independent Film 2021 at the ÉCU festival ]
But not yet [screened] in Belgium.
It is distributed by Dalton Distribution…
and the intention is that we release it together with the book.
QUATRE-MAINS Filmmaker Lander Haverals
Report (20210913) Miracles•Media
Q&A with Lander Haverals at the Belgian pre-premiere of ‘QUATRE-MAINS’.
Simon’s PUSH Premiere | 20210910 | Miracles•Media | Simon Gronowski takes the air after first time watching Howard Moody’s community opera PUSH at the pre-premiere Friday Sep 30th 2016 in the De La Warr Pavilion on the seafront in Bexhill On Sea, UK.
NEWS – PUSH revisited 2021
October 3, 2021 near Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium – Info and Tickets @ imaginair•be
“PUSH revisited” is a reworked version of parts of the PUSH opera in concert form, coupled with a unique exhibition of the work of visual artist Koenraad Tinel, which is steeped in this personal history. The exhibition, curated especially for this occasion, will feature sculptures and drawings from Tinel’s extensive oeuvre. New, never-before-seen work by the artist will also be on display.
“PUSH revisited” will be a location project, hosted by IMAGINAIR, a creative collective that resides in a former furniture factory awaiting conversion into residential project Dijledonk. The collective fills the industrial site with art and with beauty. Here “PUSH revisited” finds a breathtaking backdrop.
“Revisited” also literally refers to the place of action. The site is near Boortmeerbeek, where the train was brought to a halt that day by the three resistance fighters, which is the reason why Simon is still with us today, and celebrates his 90th birthday October 12th.
This project arose as a spontaneous response to a proposal for solidarity. What was originally only intended as financial support for the freelance artists of PUSH has grown into an event to revive the momentum of PUSH together. This project shows the involvement of the artists and their desire to keep this story alive.
“PUSH revisited” is dedicated to Simon Gronowski and Koenraad Tinel. Thanks to their inspiring resilience they show us that, regardless of our backgrounds, we have the choice to do the right thing at any time in our lives. To focus on trust, connection, friendship and hapiness. To be optimistic.
