Bridge in the village of Kuttekoven (Borgloon, Belgium) under the railway track bed of the historical Belgian Railway Line 23 – the so-called ‘Fruitspoor’ – the old railway line 23 between Tongeren and Drieslinter, that connected Tongeren, Borgloon and Sint-Truiden. Bridge under the deportation railway track from Kazerne Dossin to Auschwitz, right after the site where Simon Gronowski escaped from the 20th convoy. Filmed Jan 2014.
License info : Kuttekoven Bridge Railway Line 23 | 20230223 | Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media | TakeNode de90531a-80d0-4416-8ba5-46361a379ca9
Mobilization Holland 1939 | Dutch cinema news August 1939. Just before Hitler invades Poland (Sep 1, 1939), the Dutch government can no longer ignore the danger of war, and pre-mobilization August 24, 1939 of Dutch military is followed by mobilization August 28. Source : Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (Aug 1939) | Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision ~ Film : Mobilization Holland 1939 | 20220307 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Holland On Standby 1938 | Dutch cinema news Sep. 1938 on the imminent international war situation with precautions by the Dutch army and people hoarding food in Holland. Source : Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (Image publ. 19 Sep 1938 ; Sound publ. 28 Aug 1939) | Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision ~ Film : Holland On Standby 1938 | 20220306 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Westerbork Film Football Edit | Edition 2021 | 20210517
SILENT FILM
The UNESCO – Memory of the World – ‘ Westerbork films’ dossier (REF 1) consists of both the actual film footage, as well as a dossier with the 1944 film plan, film script, title cards (intertitles), and a file with correspondence between the camp and the outside world on obtaining camera’s , film and film processing. That film footage was researched and presented before on Settela•com.
In a recent post (Westerbork Film Intertitles | 20210515; REF 2) the drawings for the title cards were shown in a short film I made, that also showed a few seconds of Breslauer’s archive film footage demonstrating that not all of his Westerbork Film is a compilation of rushes only -he also had done some experiments filming and animating title cards. Aside from that, the film was not edited, and title cards were not yet inserted.
Today, working on presenting that 1944 film plan and script, I noticed in that editing script (all written in the German language) the instruction “Untertitel: ( in einen rollenden Fussball einkopiert ) Appelplatz am Sonntag Nachmittag.” , in English : ‘Subtitle: copied into a rolling football – roll call area on Sunday afternoon’. That is the text on one of these title cards I worked with, and I had seen Breslauer’s filming and slow-motion experiments with a rolling football, on that same F1014 reel that was used for his animation tests (REF 3). This has been described also in the 1997 dutch Westerbork film dossier analysis by Broersma & Rossing (REF 4) – a book I studied 2 years ago – and details I re-discovered later today. Tomorrow these authors will present a new edition (dutch), available later this month.
Breslauer never got the chance to try copying that title card on the rolling ball – I did today : a little digital experiment of copying that title card Appellplatz am Sonntag Nachmittag on the rolling ball. Just 4 seconds, repeated 4 times in this little film : Westerbork Film Football Edit.
2- Westerbork Film Intertitles | 20210515 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 17) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-3e
3 – Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 15) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
4 – ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658). Note, a new edition will be available May 2021 (editor Gorcum B.V., Koninklijke van; ISBN 9789023257622 ) – not yet published.
Notes : Both Appelplatz and Appellplatz are used in German and in script and title card
Credit
Thanks to ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658). Note, a new edition will be available May 2021 (editor Gorcum B.V., Koninklijke van; ISBN 9789023257622 )
Film footage source : Filmed by Rudolf Breslauer, retrieved from : Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com (accessed 2021 May 17) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
Westerbork Film Football Edit | Edition 2021 | 20210517 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com
Updates
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
Westerbork Film Intertitles | 20210515 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•com
SILENT FILM
Westerbork Films Dossier
The UNESCO – Memory of the World – ‘ Westerbork films’ dossier (REF 1) consists of both the actual film footage, as well as a dossier with the 1944 film plan, film script, title cards (intertitles), and a file with correspondence between the camp and the outside world on obtaining camera’s , film and film processing. That film footage was researched and presented before on Settela•com.
These Westerbork film documents – the film script etc – complement the Westerbork film footage presented earlier – a first full version (RVD) of the Westerbork Film posted in 2019 (20190605) and the complete UNESCO album of all known footage shot by inmate Werner Rudolf Breslauer in the Westerbork camp in 1944, posted early 2020 (REF 2).
The final part of the UNESCO registry (Le film de Westerbork – édité le 8 mai 2017 – ID code 2016-118 ) lists all the documents on the Westerbork Film at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
That NIOD archive file — called (translated) : Directing, texts and correspondence of the film “Westerbork” consists of a file containing the original screenplay or script for the film, title cards, notes, correspondence and administration . That entire file has been scanned (total of 60 black and white scans) and is available online.
More information on the history and origin of the film translated from the french UNESCO registration is posted later.
Title Cards
Here, in this short film, the title cards are presented. Title cards referenced in the UNESCO registry, and prepared in the camp in 1944 for the Westerbork film. The name of the artist drawing these cards is not known, I guess. Digital scans of 11 different letter cards were retrieved from the public online archive of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the dutch National Archive (Nationaal Archief) – full info in CREDITS.
Film Sections
In this film these title cards are used in different ways, shown in 5 sections. The arrangement of the cards was chosen by me.
1 : ‘ORIGINALS’ – TRANSLATION IN SUBTITLES – The first section shows english subtitles with the restored scan images of the orignal drawings made in Camp Westerbork. The restoration includes exposure adjustment, crop, and if necessary rotation and flip horizontal or vertical of the supplied scans.
2: NEGATIVES – The second section shows the same images, now as negatives (white on black), the way title cards are usually shown in movies, and Breslauer did too while working on the Westerbork Film – see below on section 4.
3) The 3rd sequence of the title cards shows the negatives again, now animated with cross-overs (fade in- and out) between the negatives.
Trickaufnahmen – trick shots – was mentioned in the film plan (discussed further in a later post). Trick shots like slow-motion and similar animation work by Breslauer is actually found on the Westerbork film reel F1014 with so-called ‘Residual material’. This was previously reported in the 1997 edition of the book ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Broersma & Rossing (REF 3). That reel’s footage, to me feels like this was Breslauer’s working material for tests – so a test reel, rather than rest reel.
4 : BRESLAUER’S 1944 ANIMATION TEST – This 4th segment shows the above discussed footage of Breslauer’s test work with a title card’s negative on film, as well as his animation of cards with numbers of ‘input’ and outgoing deportations. That animation uses drawings , images , not found in the NIOD archive – showing statistics for deportations to Bergen-Belsen 3029 , and Lager Vught 897 . This Westerbork film footage was retrieved from : Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 (20190616) Michel van der Burg | Settela.com (REF 4).
5 : ANIMATION COLLAGE – Here I combined the animation made in section 3 of this film, with the 1944 animation footage of Breslauer – all edited here again to conform.
Memorial Space Dossin ~
A space in which names can be heard aloud. From the secondary school project « Namen noemen » « Nommer les noms » by the Belgian students and Kazerne Dossin | Betty Swaab. With display of the faces with numbers of Transports I – XXVI & Z – in the Kazerne Dossin Memorial in Mechelen, Belgium. Filmed and sound recording May 2013.
Memorial Space Dossin | 20210512 | michelvanderburg•com | Miracles•Media
Flammable Films Bunker
Former german bunker (Atlantic Wall) in the dunes along the North Sea near Scheveningen , The Hague, with special safes to store the flammable nitrate films of dutch history from the national dutch archive – historic films for safety reasons not allowed within built-up areas.
Here the Westerbork film footage also was examined in the 1990s for clues about the deportation trains and the name of the girl with the ‘working’ name Esther (by researcher Aad Wagenaar) – later to be identified as Settela.
Here a 1980 Polygoon newsreel on the restauration of this RVD archive bunker with new safes.
Credit
Source : Polygoon-Profilti (producer) / Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (curator).
Film edit : Flammable Films Bunker | 20191216 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com – CC BY-SA 4.0
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