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
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.”
Willy Steinbach plays the violin at the Sinti caravan site Heksenberg in 1935 • Photo Jan de Jong • 1MEMO_20260518_1
In 1935 the nomadic Sinti families Steinbach — musicians — were photographed by Dutch photographer Jan de Jong at their caravan pitch on the heath around the Heksenberg hill in Brunssum, Limburg, Netherlands (1).
The boy with the violin is Willy Steinbach, an older brother of Settela Steinbach. The other 3 prints from the glass negatives that Jan de Jong made at the Heksenberg site in 1935 also show the Steinbach family, among others, with toddler Settela in the arms of her older sister Elisabeth Steinbach.
The toddler Settela in the arms of her older sister Elisabeth Steinbach (circled in blue) at the Heksenberg Sinti caravan site in 1935 • Photo Jan de Jong • 1MEMO_20260518_2
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_3
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
Settela Steinbach became known as the girl with the headscarf, featured a few seconds in the Westerbork film by Werner Rudolf Breslauer showing the deportation of the Steinbachs’ and other nomad families — all together ca 245 Sinti and Roma, and ca 450 Jews — on May 19th 1944 from the dutch transit camp Westerbork to Auschwitz (1,2).
Sally Stumbling Stone • @1MEMO_20260501 • Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media •
Stumbling stone placed Friday , April 11, 2025. Stolperstein street art monument by Gunter Demnig. Rue Marie-Therese 13 , Brussels, Belgium . Update image for post Settela.Com/2025/04/11
Nelly Quintart – spelled as Quintard – engraved on the Wall of Honor , Belgium 1999 section, in the Garden of Righteous at Yad Vashem .
Yad Vashem recognized Nelly as Righteous Among the Nations on December 30, 1998, and honored her posthumously in 1999 with the Righteous title and medal.
Background
Belgian Resistance fighter Nelly Quintart has been hiding the Jewish Frankenthal family — Esther, Adolphe, and daughter Sally Frankenthal — at her place, 13 Rue Marie-Thérèse in Brussels, from September 1942 until the liberation in 1944.
Sally Frankenthal recommended to Yad Vashem in the late 1990s the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ medal for ‘Nelly Quintard’, which Nelly received posthumously in 1999. The surname ‘Quintart’ was misspelled as ‘Quintard’ in Sally’s correspondence with Yad Vashem.
April 11, 2025. Installation stolperstein Sally Frankenthal, 11-13 Rue Marie-Thérèse, Brussels, Belgium.
Visitation Stones
As part of the closing ceremony, Bella Swiatlowski, coordinator Stolpersteine of the Association pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, invited all attendees to place a pebble around the stolperstein, a souvenir, showing respect.
Accordion music – Yiddish Partisan Song “Zog nit keyn mol” – by André Reinitz. Stolperstein handcrafted by Gunter Demnig’s team. Film by Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media.
HERE WAS HIDDEN SALLY FRANKENTHAL BORN 1934 SEP 1942-1944 SURVIVOR
Installation stolperstein Sally Frankenthal, 11-13 Rue Marie-Thérèse, Brussels, 11 April 2025. Belgian Resistance fighter Nelly Quintart has been hiding the Jewish Frankenthal family — Esther, Adolphe, and daughter Sally Frankenthal — at her place, 13 Rue Marie-Thérèse in Brussels, from September 1942 until the liberation in 1944. Sally Frankenthal recommended to Yad Vashem in the late 1990s the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ medal for ‘Nelly Quintard’, which Nelly received posthumously. The surname ‘Quintart’ was misspelled as ‘Quintard’ in Sally’s correspondence with Yad Vashem.
Together, the families of Sally Frankenthal and Nelly Quintart and researcher, filmmaker Michel van der Burg took the initiative June 2023 for this Stolperstein, a tribute to Sally Frankelthal, to recall passers-by to this story of Sally & Nelly, in front of the place where the house where Nelly Quintart hid the Frankenthal family used to stand – now a large new building at 11-13 Rue Marie-Thérèse in Brussels.
April 11, 2025 this beautiful and moving Stolperstein ceremony took place with music by André Reinitz on accordion, thanks to the Association pour la Mémoire de la Shoah joining our initiative July 2023 and making it happen, especially Marcel Zalc (president) and Bella Swiatlowski, coordinator Stolpersteine. Thank you municipal workers for placing this stolperstein. Film by Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media.
A person is only forgotten when their name is forgotten. From the Talmud
The story of Sally & Nelly is now integrated into the largest decentralized memorial in the world, thanks to the artist Gunter Demnig and his team…hand-stamping each letter into the brass of this stone.
