Marc Michiels – expert author on the history of Transport XX and coordinator for many years of the annual Transport XX commemorations in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium – unfortunately passed away April 2021 . Some months later his web site ‘holocaust’ (at telenet.be) dedicated to Transport XX was taken offline. Now — when searching for info on Robert Korten – Marc’s predecessor as the first coordinator and founder of the XXth convoy-commemorations – I was happy to to find Marc’s website is back online, now at the appropriate new domain : transportxxboortmeerbeek.be
Citation info : Transport XX Boortmeerbeek – Marc Michiels | 20240309 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode fd808fa3-09f2-4c0d-b9c8-f711a47b05ba | URL 1-memo.com/2024/03/09
Filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer also filmed two of his children in the Westerborkfilm…
Stefan (left) & Ursula Breslauer, children of Rudolf Breslauer, the filmmaker of the Westerbork film at the farm of Camp Westerbork in 1944 – identified by the dutch photographer Sake Elzinga, who received Breslauer’s family photo albums last year when the family of Ursula – the only survivor – visited an expo on Breslauer in the Westerbork museum in the Netherlands.
Camp commander (SS-Obersturmführer) Albert Gemmeker ordered the Westerbork film , made by the German Jewish prisoner, photographer, Rudolf Breslauer in the spring of 1944.
Today 80 years ago – March 5, 1944 – the camp is an ‘Arbeitslager’ – a work camp – when Rudolf Breslauer starts filming the daily life of the Westerbork prisoners — inside : in the barracks, for example a religious service, cabaret, workshops, factories, aircraft and battery recycling, medical care, and outside the barracks : construction of a greenhouse, a football match, women working out, chopping wood, incoming transports, and eventually also the departure of a deportation train. After Breslauer films the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz on May 19, 1944 the filming stops. The haunting image of the 9-year-old dutch Sinti-girl Settela, standing in the closing doors of the goods train, and the unique footage of that deportation train that leaves the Westerbork camp, became iconic after the war.
Deportation Breslauer family
Werner Rudolf Breslauer , his wife Bella Weihsmann, sons Stefan and Max Michael (Mischa), and daughter Ursula were deported autumn 1944 from Westerbork to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Only Ursula survived.
Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305 | Settela•Com | Frame 127475 from Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949 9313 | Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944, courtesy of NIOD | Sound and Vision
Scene with Stefan & Ursula Breslauer, starting at 56:13 in the 1986 RVD edition of the Westerborkfilm: Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerbork Film RVD | 20240305 | Settela•Com | URL https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxfNzA72JeGgVoOFp_VTI4EQQr3yTwXu6_
Settela Film | 20220630 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Deportation Westerbork Film | 20210719 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
CitySkip Featured Video – April 20, 2009 | Short film TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels | 20240229_1 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode deab5515-d0de-453d-9c8d-f4074a39d03b
April 20th, 2009 , TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels was featured as the most popular video at CitySkip.
CitySkip was one of the Web 2.0 communities – a network about all aspects of urban life, from city planning to street art, a forum for “cool people who dig cities” for posting messages, sharing photos and videos – at Ning.com in addition to the mainstream social networks MySpace, Facebook, YouTube. It existed from 2007 untill February 2010.
CitySkip Featured Photo – April 20, 2009 | Storyboard film TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels | 20240229_2 | Miracles•Media | TakeNode 0af46f73-5df8-4aaf-812a-355553775dd3
TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels February 28th, 2009, Brussels. Day two, of my encounter with the TRANSPORT XX installation outside in the Royal park in Brussels, that presented 1200 photographic portraits of Jews deported from Malines (Belgium) to Auschwitz in 1943. One of the stills and establising video shots made that Saturday morning after finishing long take video recordings of the installation, during a walk from our hotel in the Leopold (European) Quarter via the Royal park direction the historic centre of Brussels. That weekend break in Brussels, today 15 years ago, turned out to be a turning point in my life. Two months later – April 19, 2009 – the film TRANSPORT XX — installation Brussels was published.
8. First Encounter TRANSPORT XX … | 20240227 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/02/27 | TakeNode cf0dd64d-4512-4846-8bce-6b2d8cca24ef
9. Camera used for both photo and video (720p HD video) of the TRANSPORT XX installation in Brussels is the Sony DSC-T500 which has a CCD sensor – with global shutter – thus not affected by rolling shutter distortion while panning the installation.
Citation info : Encounter TRANSPORT XX … | 20240228 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2024/02/28 | TakeNode a8317838-7470-4538-b788-40e6cc07b55a
Song sung by Isabella’s great-grandchild Ameet Kanon (aka Queen George) , who explained today – Friday , December 1, 2023 – at the premiere :
“The Abbey – it’s been so special and personal keeping you to myself, but your message was always too big for me not to share it …
… This is Isabella Weinreb Castegnier. She is my great-grandmother. On April 19th, 1943, pregnant with my grandmother, she jumped out of a moving train headed to Auschwitz. She was being sent to her death, simply because she was a Jew. She understood that it was now or never, die at the destination or die trying, so she jumped. In the years to follow this epic jump, the Abbeys of Brussels became a place of hiding, survival, and safety for them time and time again.”
‘Entartete Art’ 1935 – Coleman Hawkins & Leo de la Fuente in Holland
American saxophonist Coleman Hawkins announces and plays – accompanied by Leo de la Fuente on piano – on his tenor saxophone ‘I wished that I were twins’.
In 1934, Coleman Hawkins left the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and Amerika, moved to Europe, and joined the Jack Hylton Orchestra in England. Hylton and his band made regular ‘continental’ tours, and started another European tour January 1935 accompanied by Coleman Hawkins in Holland. At the end of January 1935 Hawkins joins the dutch band The Rambers … for 8 days … because Hawkins was denied entry to Germany because of his race, while Hylton and his band continued their tour without him and play for eight days at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.
To end this special week with Hawkins well, the bandleader of The Ramblers – Theo Uden Masman – arranged with Decca for recordings 4 february 1935 in Pulchri Studio in The Hague, Holland, including this : I wish I were twins…that was also recorded on film by Polygoon (Polygoontoon) for the dutch cinema news for next week .
Coleman Hawkins is accomponied here on film by the dutch jazz pioneer Leo de la Fuente on piano , playing ‘I wished that I were twins’ . After the recordings, Hawkins moves further into Europe.
Leo – Leonard Henriques – de la Fuente, who was born Jewish in Amsterdam 28 March 1902, was deported by the nazi’s to Auschwitz on 2 November 1942, and died 30 April 1944 ‘somewhere in Mid Europe’.
Citation : ‘Entartete Art’ 1935 – Coleman Hawkins & Leo de la Fuente in Holland | 20231123 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | TakeNode 4f388407-5ccc-4816-aef6-6064fcee35b2
Tulips of blooming life and survival in Holland | 20231103 | Miracles•Media | Screenshot (Arte.tv) from Aux Pays-Bas, les tulipes de la prospérité / In den Niederlanden: Blühender Wohlstand
Excellent, to see the video work Tulip Bulbs War Food Holland 1944-1945 (Ref. 1) helping the ARTE European public service channel broadcasting next week all over Europe an excellent documentary about the cultural legacy of tulips in Holland , featured in the daily French/German TV show ‘Invitation au Voyage / Stadt Land Kunst.’
The French (FR) edition ‘Aux Pays-Bas, les tulipes de la prospérité’ is broadcast on Arte Tuesday 7 Nov. 2023 at 17:20 , and 8 Nov. at 8:40. The German (DE) edition ‘In den Niederlanden: Blühender Wohlstand’ 7 Nov. 2023 at 13:25 and 8 Nov. at 08:10 .
The documentary is an Arte & Elephant Doc coproduction , directed by Anna-Gaëlle Brault. In collaboration with Victoria Dehaut, documentalist, researcher (Elephant Adventures).
ARTE is a channel specialized in culture and known for its quality documentaries.
Arte.tv is streaming the docu online from 31/10/2023 to 05/01/2024 (Ref. 2, 3)
