Review Ghosts of Alderney • Hitlers Island Slaves • 20250613

Review by Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media – Published June 13, 2025

New evidence of atrocities committed by Nazis on British soil is revealed in the documentary – The Ghosts of Alderney – Hitler’s Island Slaves – to be released by Wild Dog Films during 2025 (1).

The film premiered at a London, UK, press screening earlier this week (2-5).

Ghosts of Alderney is a documentary on the artist Piers Secunda’s research into the use of slave labour on the British Channel island Alderney during World War II. In 1941, Hitler’s forces took over the island. What followed was a brutal occupation.

Workers from across Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to build Hitler’s military defences on the Channel Islands.

Alderney had the worst conditions—prisoners were beaten, starved, shot, and buried in mass graves — a scene compared to Belsen concentration camp in later reports.

The film reveals new evidence of crimes on the island, including firing squads, mass killings, and contests between Nazi officers using prisoners for target practice, aiming repeatedly at body parts, until they died.

It also explores how the British government avoided prosecuting those responsible after the war.

Experts in the film suggest that this was part of a cover-up.

Historian Madeleine Bunting calls it “the biggest mass murder on British soil,” yet many facts are still unclear.

A recent UK inquiry confirmed over 1,100 deaths, though more are missing.

Through testimony and research, the film tries to tell the personal stories behind the numbers.

Secunda says, “These were real people, not just names on a list.”

Ghosts of Alderney: Hitler’s Island Slaves, , a production from Wild Dog, a British independent company, will be released later this year.

Film Trailer

Notes

1. Ghosts of Alderney: Hitler’s Island Slaves . Wild Dog . URL https://www.wilddogworld.com/ghostsofalderney/

2. Personal communication , Andrew Johnstone | Wild Dog .

3. Nazi guards shot prisoners for fun at Channel Islands camp, research says. Dalya Alberge | Guardian, June 10, 2025 . URL https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/10/nazi-guards-shot-prisoners-for-fun-at-channel-islands-camp-research-says

4. Press screening, Piers Secunda | Instagram . URL https://www.instagram.com/pierssecunda/p/DKxYiQaInOD/

5. Press screening, Piers Secunda | Instagram @itvnews report. URL https://www.instagram.com/p/DK11LwEI-yK/

#alderney #documentary #wwII #ww2 #research #history #testimony #channel #uk #island #nazi #pierssecunda #wilddog #film #review

Robert Clary Story • Documentary (Extended Version) • 20250419

By Michel van der Burg • Miracles•Media & Richard Bloom Productions – Published April 19, 2025

Rhythmus

April 19, 1945 – today 80 years ago – the Buchenwald band ‘Rhythmus’ gave a jazz concert in the evening in the cinema barracks of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald for the survivors, their comrades, and the US soldiers that liberated the camp.

Czech political prisoner Jiří Žák started the Rhythmus jazz orchestra of inmates of the Buchenwald camp. ‘Woke’ music — ‘Entartete’ art , degenerated art, officially in Nazi Germany, the 3rd Reich.
The Nazis enthusiastically applauded the “outside” forbidden jazz in the camp, and various SS people took part in the concerts given between August 1943 and December 1944 by this official camp band Rhythmus (1,2,3).

Jiří Žák | 20250419 | Family Archive Goldscheider | Miracles•Media

Jiří Žák sabotaged the transports, as the trusted administrator of the Buchenwald transport department, by setting up a “Transport Reserve C” commando of almost 100 prisoners, thus freed from hard labor, and saved numerous Jews from deportation and death march shortly before liberation of the camp.

The French singer Robert Widerman listed on the April 19,1945 Rhythmus program , was one of these Jewish prisoners saved by Jiří Žák.
Band leader Yves Darriet (4) came up with the nickname ‘Clary’ for Robert (from the movie Les Adventures de Désirée Clary). Robert Widerman would become a Hollywood legend, known as Robert Clary (5).

From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story • Extended Version (2025)

From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story : The Documentary (Extended Version) • 20250419 • A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg

Robert Clary’s story is told in our documentary : From Buchenwald to Hollywood – the Story of Robert Clary • A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg. The original film premiered in 2018 at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) in Hollywood (Florida, USA) , and after screening at other film festivals, premiered online March 1, 2022 on the occasion of Robert’s 96th birthday (6,7).

We today present the 2025 extended version of the documentary (8) , now featuring also Robert Clary’s desire that Jiri Zák be nominated as a Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem.

Notes

1. Rhythmus | 20221117 | Miracles.Media | URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2022/11/17/rhythmus-20221117/

2. Rhythmus Jazz Buchenwald | 20230910 | Miracles.Media | URL https://michelvanderburg.com/2023/09/10/rhythmus-jazz-buchenwald-20230910/

3. »Rhythmus«: Jazz im KZ Buchenwald. Gerhard Hoffmann. Ossietzky Ed. 09/2022. URL https://www.ossietzky.net/artikel/rhythmus-jazz-im-kz-buchenwald/

4. Robert Clary Story – Yves Darriet … – 20250419 | https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxJEnyXVfWTXr3fPBptlS1lYjj41ZrFRnb

5. Robert Clary – Hollywood Legend – 20250419 | https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8UWg8Qwrb8HbZ_ikqq8wRaAnt80zS0dn

6. Watch Free Online – The Robert Clary Story | 20220301 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313

7. Documentaries That Matter : From Buchenwald to Hollywood the Robert Clary Story. Richard Bloom Productions. URL https://richardbloomproductions.com/the-robert-clary-story

8. From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story : The Documentary (Extended Version) • 20250419 • A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg . URL https://youtu.be/xwECq2KPdz4

9. Robert Clary Story – Jiří Žák – 20250419 | https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxdkuSPUZSINdhMHuclx7-2p0-9eXhBpAX

10. Robert Clary Story – Jiří Žák Yad Vashem File – 20250419 | https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxDB9YjOEoSNsBtEyX71_04nu7j5JyUeYl

Discoveries Deportation Westerbork Film • 20250224

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…

Notes

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/

Amsterdam couple found in Westerbork film • 20241223

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.

Pels & Brandon Clip 1 & 2

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.

20241223_1 | Settela•Com | Pels & Brandon Clip 1 after 20 min 🔗

20241223_2 | Settela•Com | Pels & Brandon Clip 2 after 21 min 🔗

That’s it

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.”

Anonym | Girl with the headscarf …

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).

Deportation Breslauer family

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.

Notes

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

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

Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305

Stefan & Ursula Breslauer in Westerborkfilm | 20240305 – Clip from : Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Settela•Com | URL https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxdcMjzZQcH8jOtp1j2xFwrPxyAoHMcdFr

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

Notes

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

News

March 5, 2024 : Updated 21:21

Deportation | 20240226

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/

‘Entartete Art’ 1935 – Coleman Hawkins & Leo de la Fuente in Holland | 20231123

‘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’.

References

About Leonard Henriques de la Fuente, his wife Hendrika de Vries and his daughters Benvenida and Mietje. Joods Monument. URL https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/680262/about-leonard-henriques-de-la-fuente-his-wife-hendrika-de-vries-and

Biografie Leo de la Fuente. Muziekencyclopedie.nl | Beeld & Geluid. URL https://www.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/entry/Leo+de+la+Fuente

The Hawk in Holland. Jacky de Vries. Theater Sentiment – De verhalen over de artiesten van weleer – Jaargang 3 Nummer 4. URL https://theatersentiment.nl/the-hawk-in-holland/

Jack Hylton 1892-1965. Abaigh McKee. Politics & Propaganda | Music and the Holocaust | URL https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/jack-hylton/

Film edited from source (video footage) : Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (Polygoontoon, producer) dutch cinema news reel week 7 , 1935 | Sound & Vision (Open Images)

Citation : ‘Entartete Art’ 1935 – Coleman Hawkins & Leo de la Fuente in Holland | 20231123 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | TakeNode 4f388407-5ccc-4816-aef6-6064fcee35b2

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