① memo 20170727 ~ Transit Camp Mechelen ~ Today 75 years ago on July 27, 1942 the “SS-Sammellager Mechelen” collection and deportation camp was opened in the former barracks “Kazerne Dossin”. The building now houses the Kazerne Dossin memorial , filmed here in 2013 – Mechelen , Belgium.
One minute slow-motion of the moment the 9-year-old Settela Steinbach peeks outside in the cattle car door opening on the Westerbork death train bound for Auschwitz – May 19 , 1944 . ① memo 20170725 Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com | 1-memo.com
( unbranded version of video added today to the archives of The One Minutes / Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision )
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 freight wagon with 74 people on May 19 , 1944 in the Westerbork concentration 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. Here she wears a headscarf made from a torn sheet, because the Nazis had her head shaved , and while Settela peeks outside , her mother cries behind her in the car : “Get out of there, or soon your head gets in between!”
She was filmed by the jewish prisoner filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer as part of a documentary film being made on the Westerbork camp. More info here http://romasinti.eu/#story/settela-steinbach
In this short film I start with a slow-motion (10x) of the 3 seconds clip, followed by the unedited clip from the Westerbork 1944 film rushes / Rudolf Breslauer / Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Open Images).
Credit
Edited from Westerbork Acte 1 (02-1167) raw footage courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | OpenImages.
Camera : Rudolf Breslauer, 1944, Westerbork, Netherlands .
Film: Settela | 20170721 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY 4.0 .
① memo 20170520 ~ The Last Witnesses ~ Closing ceremony at the presentation of the dutch book “De Laatste Getuigen” telling the stories of over 80 survivors ( ISBN 9789054877370 ) with a panel discussion with the survivors Staf Schaerlackens , Max De Vries , Elisabeth ‘Lieske’ Vossen , and Evrard Voorpijls , and presentations by Marc Van Roosbroeck (chairman of vzw “De werkgroep 10 december 2008”) , Gert De Nutte (publisher ASP) Rudi Beken , Herman Vandormael, and Patrick Dewael (mayor of Tongeren) on 20 May 2011 , Tongeren , Belgium
① memo 20170428 ~ Crescendo A Cappella — Al Kol Ele ~ The Crescendo Boortmeerbeek Choir sings “Al Kol Ele” a cappella during the Transport XX commemoration May 15 , 2011 in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium – Film : Michel van der Burg – michelvanderburg.com | 1-memo.com
Video published on Apr 19, 2017 – Partison Song – Zog nit keynmol (Ne dis jamais) est le nom de la chanson écrite en 1943 par Hirsh Glick, jeune juif détenu au ghetto de Vilnius apprenant le soulèvement du ghetto de Varsovie contre les nazis. La mélodie est du russe Dmitry Pokrass écrite en 1935
Background *
‘Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg’ (Never say that you are walking the final road), also known as ‘The Partisans’ Song’, is perhaps the best-known of the Yiddish songs created during the Holocaust. It was written by the young Vilna poet Hirsh Glik, and based on a pre-existing melody by the Soviet-Jewish composer Dimitri Pokrass. Inspired by the news of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the song was adopted as the official anthem of the Vilna partisans shortly after it was composed in 1943, and spread with remarkable rapidity to other ghettos and camps. The song is powerful and defiantly optimistic, acknowledging Jewish suffering in the past and present, and urging the Jewish people to continue fighting for their survival. It is one of the most frequently performed songs at Holocaust commemoration ceremonies.
① memo 20170427 ~ Heroic Hands ~ Friend , as you pass by , Honour these hands whose heroic gesture saved those whom the forces of evil had destined for hell .
This corten steel work of Etienne Desmet is a tribute to the heroic attack in Boortmeerbeek by the three young men Youra Livschitz, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon , on the ‘Transport XX’ deportation train – a cattle car train crammed with 1631 Jewish passengers, heading for Auschwitz. They were able to open one of the cattle cars and liberated 17 men and women. Another more than 200 prisoners escape from the train before the German border. The story is told in the documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” – https://michelvanderburg.com/2013/04/19/transport-xx-to-auschwitz/
Filmed last Sunday at the Transport XX commemoration April 23 , 2017 in Boortmeerbeek , Belgium
