Stumbling stone placed Friday , April 11, 2025. Stolperstein street art monument by Gunter Demnig. Rue Marie-Therese 13 , Brussels, Belgium .
Background:
Story of Righteous Nelly • Quintart aka Quintard • URL https://settela.com/2023/05/26/story-of-righteous-nelly-quintart-aka-quintard/
Notes
Reportage following next week
Citation info : Sally • 20250411 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Utrecht family identification , almost complete…
Almost certainly, three Jewish people have been recognized in the unique Westerbork film from 1944 (1). This time it concerns the 9-year-old boy Israël Wijnschenk, his father Max Wijnschenk, and his grandmother Betje Kokernoot-van Furth, who all lived in Utrecht (Holland).
Last week, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS (2) reported the news from the Utrecht (Dutch) news site Nieuws030 (3) that it is very likely that three people were recognized again in this film made by the Jewish prisoner and filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer showing the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti by train in Camp Westerbork on May 19, 1944.
Image researcher Koen Hulsbos — who previously identified an Amsterdam couple in this deportation train (4) — thought he recognized the young Israël Wijnschenk, a pupil at the time of the Joodse (Jewish) School Utrecht, and presented this to Victor Frederik, researcher of the Joodse School (5,6). The boy, the man, and the woman seem to belong together, and were recognized from family photos, also by family members.
It is certain that Max and his wife Chel (not in the images) returned to Utrecht after the war, their children Israël and his sister Kitty were murdered. Grandma Betje was also gassed in Auschwitz.
A portrait of Israël Wijnschenk is shown at the site of Joods Monument (7).
According to the transport list, there were two other children in that wagon, Joseph Beugeltas (11 years old) and Manfred Studzinsky (7 years old). Joseph Beugeltas appeared to have blond hair, and could not have been it (6). To be completely sure, the researchers are still looking for a photo of Manfred Studzinsky, for comparison…
1) Deportation Westerbork Film • Edition 2021 | 20210719 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944, courtesy of NIOD | Sound and Vision . URL https://settela.com/2021/07/19/deportation-westerbork-film-20210719/
2) Utrechters ‘vrijwel zeker’ herkend op Westerborkfilm uit 1944. NOS Nieuws Feb 22, 2025. URL https://nos.nl/l/2556858
3) Nieuwe herkenningen in Westerborkfilm ‘bijna zeker’. Jim Terlingen | Nieuws030 . URL https://www.nieuws030.nl/hist030rie/drie-nieuwe-herkenningen-in-westerborkfilm-zo-goed-als-zeker/
4) Amsterdam couple found in Westerbork film • 20241223 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/12/23
5) Joodse school Utrecht. Website. URL https://joodseschoolutrecht.nl
6) Israël op Westerborkfilm? Victor Frederik- Web site Joodse school Utrecht. (Accessed 20250224). URL https://joodseschoolutrecht.nl/nl/Verhalen-over-leerlingen/Kitty-en-Israel-Wijnschenk/Israel-op-Westerborkfilm/
7) Portrait of Israël Wijnschenk. Site Joods Monument. URL https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/122045/israël-wijnschenk
Citation info : Discoveries Deportation Westerbork Film • 20250224 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2025/02/24/
The Dutch national broadcaster NOS (1) and the local RTV Drenthe (2) reported this morning (23 Dec 2024) that 2 more people have been recognized in the Westerbork film.
It is the Amsterdam couple Marcus Pels and Hendrika Brandon. They were identified by the image researcher Koen Hulsbos – volunteer worker at the Behind the Star project of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies .
The Jewish photographer and filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer, while a prisoner in the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, was commissioned by camp commander Albert Gemmeker to make film recordings for the Westerbork film in the spring of 1944, featuring images of a deportation train.
The NOS broadcast referred to images in the first published Westerbork film (3) :
The film can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. After just under 5 minutes 🔗 a man with a hat can be seen looking into the camera with a smile, and next to him a woman with black, slightly wavy hair can be seen from behind. The same couple appears again at 6 minutes 🔗. It turned out to be the Amsterdam couple Marcus Pels and Hendrika Brandon.
Also available on YouTube is the more recent second Westerborkfilm (4). This 2021 edition has the recently found original camera rolls of the deportation transport (Reel E198), with higher quality images of the couple.
Hulsbos had already had photos of Marcus Pels and Hendrika Brandon in his collection of images of prisoners who were transported on that day – May 19, 1944 – when Breslauer films the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz.
“I’ve seen the film many times, but at one point I thought, ‘Hey, this couple is on screen twice.’ I had never really noticed that before,” says Hulsbos.
Hulsbos then compared the film footage with his photos. “And then I thought: that’s it,” says the amateur film historian.
Marcus Pels was murdered immediately after arriving in Auschwitz. Hendrika Brandon survived the war, as did their daughter and son, who were in hiding with a foster family. Katy (Keetje, 86 years old) and Philip (83) are still alive and live in Canada. They were shown the film footage and confirmed that they were their parents.
“They don’t remember their father. So to actually see images of him, to see him just walking around alive, there are no words to describe it,” granddaughter Lisa Kaufman said as a family spokesperson. “It was very special to see my grandmother, who I grew up with.”
In the Westerbork film, Hendrika looks at the woman on the stretcher, who was recognized in the 1990s through her suitcase as Frouwke Kroon, and thus was the key to identifying this transport and thus also to the name of the anonymous girl with the headscarf between the wagon doors – Settela (5,6).
Earlier this year it was reported that filmmaker Rudolf Breslauer had also filmed two of his children , Stefan , and Ursula Breslauer in the Westerborkfilm at the farm (7).
Werner Rudolf Breslauer , his wife Bella Weihsmann, sons Stefan and Max Michael (Mischa), and daughter Ursula were deported later in 1944 from Westerbork to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Only Ursula survived.
1) Twee mensen herkend in Westerborkfilm: ‘Kan niet missen’ | NOS Nieuws • Dec 23, 2024 09:45 | URL https://nos.nl/artikel/2549390-twee-mensen-herkend-in-westerborkfilm-kan-niet-missen
2) Nieuwe ontdekking in Westerbork-film: Amsterdams echtpaar krijgt gezicht | RTV Drenthe • Dec 23, 2024 07:10 | URL https://www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/17091818/nieuwe-ontdekking-in-westerbork-film-amsterdams-echtpaar-krijgt-gezicht
3) Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2019/06/05/westerbork-film-full-version-rvd/
4) Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2022/03/02/westerbork-film-🎦-2021-complete-remastered-edition-20220302/
5) ANONYM | Girl with the headscarf … | 20210416 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2021/04/16/anonym-girl-with-the-headscarf-20210416/
6) ANONIEM | Meisje met hoofddoekje … | 20210417 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2021/04/17/anoniem-meisje-met-hoofddoekje-20210417/
7) Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/03/05
Citation info : Amsterdam couple found in Westerbork film • 20241223 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/12/23
by Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media
Ward Adriaens (Mechelen, Belgium) passed away suddenly on the evening of November 15th, 2024. A wonderful man, a freethinker, author, with a passion for living history, especially the resistance, partisans, in World War II, and the founding director in 1995 of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance (JMDR) that opened its doors in 1996. In 2012 the JMDR became the Kazerne Dossin museum, with Ward Adriaens as honorary curator. In 2005 Ward Adriaens launched the Give Them a Face archival project. The portraits of all Jewish, Roma and Sinti deportees which passed through the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks, transit camp, Mechelen) in 1942-1944, were scanned to create the “Give Them a Face” portrait collection. All around 20,000 photos in the Give Them a Face portrait collection are now part of the commemoration wall – a permanent exhibition – at the Kazerne Dossin museum.
In 2009 , I first encountered the Transport XX installation in Brussels, and met Ward Adriaens’ team of the Give Them a Face project in the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance in Mechelen, Belgium (1,2).
Next , Ward Adriaens participated in our 2012 documentary Transport XX to Auschwitz (3).
Recently, May 2024, Ward Adriaens’ opening speech at the TRANSPORT XX installation in Mechelen in 2007, was posted in the ‘Miracles’ project at Miracles•Media (4).
“…Let us clearly understand that this is the fundamental basis of racism: persecuted because we have a mother. We all have parents and many amongst us have children. In order to protect them it is essential that we do not give an inch to racism. Everyone of us will come under threat should the policy makers be influenced by racism…”
We lost Ward Adriaens… way too soon…
Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media
1. Encounter • Miracles Docs #1 • Miracles•Media • 20240419 • URL https://miracles.media/2024/04/19/20240419/
2. Faces • Miracles Photo Story #1 • Miracles•Media • 20240419 • URL https://miracles.media/2024/04/19/faces-miracles-photo-story-1-20240419/
3. Ward Adriaens’ interview by the dutch reporters Piet de Blaauw & Aart Zeeman (Dutch NCRV-Netwerk broadcast, 13 April 2005, NL1) from the documentary ‘Transport XX to Auschwitz’ – a film by Karen Lynne & Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg • In : Documentary film “Transport XX to Auschwitz” • Miracles•Media • 20130419 • URL (retrieved 20241119) https://michelvanderburg.com/2013/04/19/transport-xx-to-auschwitz/
4. Speech by Ward Adriaens, Curator of The JMDR, Friday 20th April 2007. In : TRANSPORT XX installation Mechelen • Miracles•Media • 20240518
Citation info : In Memoriam Ward Adriaens • 20241119 • Settela•Com • ISSN 2949-9313
After escaping the treacherous waters of WWII, Captain Jake Rogers leads his crew on a daring mission across Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue the father of his beloved, entangled in a web of espionage, betrayal, and relentless pursuit.
John Winn Miller, a veteran of investigative journalism for decades, masterfully weaves historical detail into his World War II novel Rescue Run. The story follows American ship’s captain Jake Rogers, who, after his U.S. Liberty ship carrying war supplies is wrecked in the North Atlantic, first lands in Ireland. He then sets out with a few of his loyal men on a perilous mission to rescue the father of Miriam Maduro, the love of his life, from the Westerbork transit camp in Nazi-occupied Holland.
A gruelling journey follows from Amsterdam across Nazi-occupied Europe to Spain – on foot, by train, and by boat – via a long series of hiding places, historical locations and events, aided by well-known and lesser-known resistance organisations and historical figures, besieged by con men, double agents, gangsters and pursued by a ruthless Dutch bounty hunter.
As a non-native English speaker, I initially struggled a bit with the first few chapters, particularly the maritime terms and rich language used in the sea adventure with the Liberty ship, besides the introduction of the many characters. However, once past those pages, the novel became a true page-turner. The gripping, almost cinematic narrative had me finishing the book in just two or three days, despite also spending some time online searching for even more historical context, for example when Rogers is helped by the Dutch resistance group ‘Groep 2000’ led by Jacoba van Tongeren, and when characters like Etty Hillesum and Audrey Hepburn appear in the story.
I rarely read fiction these days — almost exclusively occupied with non-fiction — but John Miller’s work intrigued me. I was curious to see how he managed to incorporate the reality of Nazi-occupied Europe, and in particular the Westerbork transit camp, into fiction. The result is exceptional. The blend of fiction and nonfiction strengthens the narrative, bringing the past vividly to life. Miller also provides an extensive set of notes at the end of the book, offering in-depth background information on the events and historical figures featured in the story, detailing also what happened to them after the events of the novel.
I especially appreciate how John Winn Miller brings the wartime past to life in Rescue Run, with accuracy and rich detail, from multiple perspectives. His cinematic storytelling draws readers into a narrative that inspires further exploration of this history.
John Winn Miller is an award-winning investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, editor, publisher, screenwriter, indie movie producer and novelist. | Photo Bancroft Press. | More info at Miller’s website URL https://www.johnwinnmiller.com
Though Rescue Run is a sequel to Miller’s first novel, The Hunt for the Peggy C, no prior knowledge of the first book is required. A summary of the prequel is included for new readers or those needing a refresher.
This review was prompted by my contribution of a still (image below) from the Westerbork film for Rescue Run’s book jacket , in collaboration with designer Christine Van Bree and author John Winn Miller.
John kindly provided me with a link for a free download of the Advance Reader Copy on the BookSirens’ platform. Since I’m documenting the Westerbork film through the online magazine Settela•Com, I happily accepted BookSiren’s invitation to join the review team.
A gripping, almost cinematic narrative that blends fiction and non-fiction . By Michel van der Burg, filmmaker, editor of Settela•Com • RESCUE RUN Reviews. By John Winn Miller (Retrieved 20250606) URL https://www.johnwinnmiller.com/copy-of-readers-favorite
Shop : Via johnwinnmiller.com URL https://www.johnwinnmiller.com/copy-of-peggy-c-1
Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305 – Clip from : Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Settela•Com | URL https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxdcMjzZQcH8jOtp1j2xFwrPxyAoHMcdFr
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.
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.
Clip from : Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | Complete Remastered Edition | YouTube https://youtu.be/ZiLNDziwEtc
Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Settela•Com | URL https://settela.com/2022/03/02/westerbork-film-🎦-2021-complete-remastered-edition-20220302/
Kinderen van filmmaker Breslauer herkend in historische Westerborkfilm. Dutch national news broadcaster NOS Nieuws, in cooperation with RTV Drenthe, 13:18 Monday 4 March 2024 | URL https://nos.nl/artikel/2511414-kinderen-van-filmmaker-breslauer-herkend-in-historische-westerborkfilm
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
English introduction to Westerborkfilm :
Westerborkfilm Introduction | 20220507 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | URL https://settela.com/2022/05/07/westerborkfilm-introduction-20220507/
Citation info : Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/03/05
March 5, 2024 : Updated 21:21
Camp commander (SS-Obersturmführer) Albert Gemmeker oversees the deportation of Jews, Sinti, and Roma from the Westerbork transit camp May 19, 1944 .
Gemmeker is the producer of the Westerborkfilm — he ordered the film. Cameraman is the German Jewish prisoner Rudolf Breslauer.
Source : Frame 2608 from Westerborkfilm Introduction | 20220507 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2022/05/07/westerborkfilm-introduction-20220507/
Citation info : Deportation | 20240226 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2024/02/26 | TakeNode 3b14bb27-07aa-4b34-9fab-0b5da0bb8580
