cabaret – Settela•Com

Westerbork Girls – From left to right: Catharina Frank, Hannelore Cahn, Beatrice Lissauer, Ulla Gross, Lotte Heider-Lehmann and Ruth Pagener. (Source : Westerbork Memorial)

The documentary ‘Westerbork Girl’ (2007), directed by Steffie van den Oord, tells the story of Hannelore Cahn (later Eisinger-Cahn), a Jewish woman imprisoned in Camp Westerbork for more than two years during World War II. She performed as a dancer in the camp revue, attracting the attention of many, including camp commander Gemmeker and Jewish camp policeman Hans Eisinger, member of the Jewish Order Service—also known as “the Jewish SS”.

Westerbork Girl (VPRO 2007)

Hannelore had earlier met actor and resistance fighter Rob de Vries, with whom she was close. Rob smuggled her out of Westerbork by disguising himself as a train stoker and taking her to Amsterdam, where she briefly went into hiding. Hans Eisinger manages to track her down and one week after her escape Hannelore voluntarily accompanies him back to the camp…possibly due to loneliness, Rob’s existing relationship, or pressure from the Order Service to prevent others being deported to Auschwitz. Shortly thereafter, Hannelore and Hans get married in Westerbork.

Hannelore survived the war and avoided punishment after her return. The film reconstructs her story through interviews, archival footage, and music, presenting it as one of survival, love, and the difficult choices faced under Nazi persecution.

Hannelore sings and is still intensely sung about by Louis de Wijze, who witnessed her escape and remembered the revue songs from Westerbork: Ich hab es bei Nacht den Sternen erzählt, Ich liebe Dich.

Powerful documentary—this story, with close-ups of this Westerbork Girl, that resonate with me. Beautiful surprise while researching the use of the Westerborkfilm. Review by Michel van der Burg , editor Settela.Com

Citation info : Westerbork Girl • 20250916 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2025/09/16

As discussed with the presentation of the full unedited Westerbork Film recently (Ref. 1), the collection of the film footage was started in 1946 by the ‘RIOD’ Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (National Institute for War Documentation).

According to the inventory of the RIOD from 1958 – when the film reels were handed over to the Nederlands Filmmuseum (Dutch Film Museum) – the Westerbork Film (https://youtu.be/8E-IWGjbGZM ) basically consisted of 9 film reels ; and that inventory also mentioned a 10th reel (‘reel 9a’) with scenes of a ‘church service’ and ‘disassembly workshop for motors’. That reel was never again mentioned after 1958, had disappeared, but was rediscovered in the Film Museum with catalog number F1015 during research in the 1990s (Ref. 2). That story and the footage F1015 ( https://youtu.be/-SmYdFLG5N8 ) was posted yesterday (Ref. 3).

That catalog of the Dutch Film Museum also mentioned a 2nd film reel (F1014) with hitherto unknown footage, described as in dutch ‘Restmateriaal, bevattende (o.a.) animatie met voetbal, voorstelling met muziek, het trekken van kiepwagens op rails met paarden. Afvalmateriaal, vermoedelijk origineel uitschot.’ – which translates to ‘Residual material, including (among other things) animation with football, performance with music, pulling tippers on rails with horses. Waste material, presumably original waste.’

Actually very interesting footage demonstrating that Rudolf Breslauer was filming the animation and intertitles (title cards) as listed in the film scenario (pore on that later in another post). Here that unedited (upscaled) footage of F1014.

References

2. ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen); ISBN 9023232658

Credit

EN – Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014. Scaled, cropped, otherwise unedited footage F1014.
Source Beeld en Geluid (2-1167 | former cat.nr. F1014) , accessed at US Holocaust Memorial Museum (copy Film ID 2242 RG-60.2105 – License Free – Public Domain) , courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid. Footage filmed by Rudolf Breslauer in 1944.
Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0

Updates

20220604 – Format changes credit line , references

20230518 – Credits and references updated with ISSN