Netherlands’ Fight World War II | 20220303 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Three years of the Netherlands’ fight against the axis 1940-1943
Film about the Dutch urge for freedom in the Second World War, which is said to be rooted in Dutch history. This is followed by images of the pre-war Netherlands with typical views (including the Rijksmuseum, the Night Watch (Nachtwacht), the Muntplein square in Amsterdam, the viaduct of the Hofplein line, new industrial residential areas, Amsterdam Airport (Schiphol), the Afsluitdijk dike, the Dutch East Indies, Curaçao and the Hague Peace Palace (Vredespaleis). A look back at the mobilization with Hr.Ms. Tromp, artillery and soldiers along the waterline. The German invasion including Rotterdam, Moerdijk bridges and Zeeland. HMS Queen Wilhelmina on arrival in England accompanied by baron C. de Vos van Steenwijk. A look at the contribution of the Dutch East Indies. Negotiation with Japanese envoy. Mobilization with images of new material. The declaration of war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bombardment of Catalinas on [Japanese submarine]. Glenn-Martin’s Bombardment of [Japanese Ships]. The Battle in the Java Sea. The Japanese invasion. Training center for Dutch people in Canada and England and the training of Dutch pilots in America. Images of the army in Suriname during the war with Marmon-Herrington tank. Training in the Netherlands Antilles. Convoy protection. Torpedo boat (TM-8) in view. Patrolling in the West Indies and the transfer by President Roosevelt of the submarine fighter Hr.Ms. Queen Wilhelmina to HMS Queen Wilhelmina on 30 July 1942. The merchant navy fleet of the Netherlands. Images from the occupied Netherlands.
World War II documentary produced in 1944 by the Netherlands Information Bureau (N.I.B.) – an Agency of the Netherlands Kingdom, in het Rockefeller Center in New York , USA . Propaganda – Dutch diplomacy – during World War II for international public (especially the USA) aiming at international cooperation in the fight against the Axis alliance – that is : against Germany, Italy, and Japan . Source : Collection Netherlands Institute of Military History (NIMH).
Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | The complete remastered edition of the Westerbork Film , here annotated online in CC – by Michel van der Burg as an ongoing integrating resource.
The original display edition of the restored Westerbork film was edited only for black bar removal conform 4:3 format and insertion of a title card intro and outro. Annotations are added as CC – closed captions.
Source : digital display edition of the restored Westerbork film compilation made available in Public Domain by Sound and Vision from May 18, 2021. Courtesy of Collection NIOD held at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Source File : Westerbork (gerestaureerd) | Display edition. Retrieved (20210518) PID: URN:NBN:NL:IN:20-ZCRLTUSICOSDILNR .
Credit line :
Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0 .
Description & Introduction film
The Westerbork Film – a silent film – is unique…the only authentic documentary footage filmed in a Nazi camp – a waiting room for death in the Netherlands for more than 100,000 Jews, and Roma, Sinti, and resistance workers. A documentary filmed spring 1944, in the Westerbork camp, by the German-Jewish camp prisoner Rudolf Werner Breslauer – the camp photographer, and commissioned by camp commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer, Albert Konrad Gemmeker.
The Westerbork camp was set up in 1939 before the war in Holland, by the Dutch government, as a central refugees camp for Jewish refugees from Nazi-Germany.
July 1942 , when the Nazi’s decided to start ‘Entjüdung’ of the Netherlands, they took over the camp for use as transit camp for deportation of mainly Jews, and Roma, Sinti, and resistance people to eastern Europe.
March 2, 1944 , SS leader Rauter in the Netherlands reports to Germany’s SS Reichsführer Himmler : the Netherlands are ‘Judenfrei’. March 5, 1944 the camp is ‘Arbeitslager’ – a work camp – when
Rudolf Breslauer starts filming the daily life of the Westerbork prisoners. After Breslauer films the deportation of Jews, Roma and Sinti to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz on May 19, 1944 the filming stops. The film is also not edited. In 1986 the dutch RVD Information Center makes a first montage in 4 acts of the footage into what is known now as the Westerborkfilm. In 2017 the film dossier – film and production documents – enter the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Spring 2019 the Westerbork Film – full version (RVD) was published online and annotated – https://settela.com/2019/06/05/westerbork-film-full-version-rvd/ .
Spring 2019 the dutch Sound & Vision , EYE Filmmuseum and NIOD (former RIOD) started a major restauration project and search for all footage of the Westerbork film in all archives.
Two reels with original negative film were discovered by image researcher Gerard Nijssen.
All restored unique shots using both the camera original film and film copies (prints – when no original is known) were used for the new restored Westerbork film compilation made available as ‘display edition’ – with no title actually – by Sound and Vision | NIOD on May 18, 2021.
This newly restored 2021 version of the Westerbork film , 145 min long – was prepared for presentation here in 4:3 format (black bars removed) with a 6 seconds title card superimposed both at the start and the end of the film (superimposed on the originally 30 sec intro text and 17 sec outro text sections by Sound & Vision), in order not to change the length of the film – to allow exact reference to the original file’s timeline.
Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 was first uploaded March 2, 2022, and is now after annotation of the online film made public May 7, 2022 together with a short introductory film : Westerborkfilm Introduction | 20220507 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | An introduction film by Michel van der Burg on the Westerbork film with a first showing May 7, 2022 in METRO Kinokulturhaus , Vienna , Austria at the DOCUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION | DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG Symposium 6-7 May, 2022 curated by Florian Widegger. Presented by Filmarchiv Austria in cooperation with the Vienna Jewish Film Festival and the Mauthausen Memorial.
Annotations
On YouTube called Chapters – there limited number due to limit number of characters in description
NOTE : for this shot right after the Degen toddlers, Breslauer had to move all the way back to last cars of the transport to Auschwitz – May 19, 1944 – E198 Roll 2/4
00:17:03 Outbound transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz – May 19, 1944 – Original Reel E198 Roll 2/4
00:17:49 Gemmeker group passing camera in the middle
00:17:55 Outbound transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz – May 19, 1944 – Original Reel E198 Roll 2/4
Original Reel E198 Roll 3/4
00:18:13 Outbound transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz – May 19, 1944 – Original Reel E198 Roll 3/4
00:18:51 On the right : SS-Obersturmführer Albert Gemmeker , Commander of Westerbork transit camp
00:18:56 Outbound transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz – May 19, 1944 – Original Reel E198 Roll 3/4
Special thanks to Valentine Kuypers , curator at Sound and Vision, image researcher Gerard Nijssen, and the Westerbork Memorial Center researchers Bas Kortholt , Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing. Aad Wagenaar, research journalist and author of book Settela.
Work on the 2021 Westerbork film edition has been a joint effort of four dutch organizations : the Dutch media archive Sound & Vision, Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre , the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam.
The Westerbork film, May 7, 2022 at the symposium DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG of the Jüdischen Filmfestival Wien , the Mauthausen Memorial , and Filmarchiv Austria.
Settela, het meisje heeft haar naam terug (1995-2007) by Aad Wagenaar ISBN 9789089751898 / English translation by Janna Eliot ‘Settela’ (2005-2016) ISBN 978-0-9933898-2-5 .
Documentary film Settela, gezicht van het verleden by Cherry Duyns (VPRO, 1994).
De Westerborkfilm 📽️🎞️ | Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld & Geluid | YouTube Apr 8, 2021 URL https://youtu.be/8Y-A4BkWY18
Gerestaureerde filmbeelden Westerbork (1944) (May 18, 2021) Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid | Youtube (accessed 2021 Jul 19) URL: https://youtu.be/-zCmr6PSNcI
Kamp Westerbork gefilmd (May 2021) Koert Broersma, Gerard Rossing (editor Gorcum B.V., Koninklijke van) ISBN 9789023257622.
‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen) ISBN 9023232658
Dawn Skorczewski & Bettine Siertsema (2018): ‘The kind of spirit that people still kept’: VHA testimonies of Amsterdam’s Diamond Jews, Holocaust Studies URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17504902.2018.1516361
Diamantkinderen: Amsterdamse Diamantjoden en de Holocaust . Translated title of the contribution: Diamond Children: Amsterdam’s Diamond Jews and the Holocaust. Siertsema, Bettine (2020) Uitgeverij Verbum ISBN 9789493028340
Fabian Schmidt (2020): The Westerbork Film Revisited: Provenance, the Re-Use of Archive Material and Holocaust Remembrances, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, URL : https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2020.1730033
Westerbork Film Scripts | 20220508 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Westerbork Film Correspondence | 20220509 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
ANONYM | Girl with the headscarf … | 20210416 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Westerbork Film in ‘Proces Rauter’ 1948 (20190520) Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Westerbork Film 🎦 2021 | 20220302 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Display edition film annotated online in CC
Westerborkfilm Introduction | 20220507 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Introduction by Michel van der Burg on the Westerborkfilm screening in METRO Kinokulturhaus , Vienna , Austria at the DOCUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION | DOKUMENTE DER VERNICHTUNG Symposium 6-7 May, 2022 curated by Florian Widegger. Presented by Filmarchiv Austria in cooperation with the Vienna Jewish Film Festival and the Mauthausen Memorial.
20220511 Info on order of shots added in post Westerbork Film Shots Order | 20220511 . Based on that info , here the Annotations list now has sub-headings like ‘Original Reel E325′ etc.
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
20230518 – Credits and references updated with ISSN
“From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg .
March 1, 2022 – Celebrating Robert Clary’s 96th birthday today announcing this special gift :
Watch online free now our full feature documentary “From Buchenwald to Hollywood, The Robert Clary Story” – A film by Karen and Richard Bloom and Michel van der Burg.
Synopsis
The truly inspiring story of Holocaust Survivor, Robert Clary (born Robert Max Widerman, March 1, 1926 in the heart of Paris, France) who was liberated from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945 by the U.S.Army. Discovered singing in a Paris cabaret and brought to the United States where he became internationally known for his portrayal of Corporal Louie LeBeau on the long running hit TV show Hogan’s Heroes as well as for his Broadway, soap opera and movie roles, his record albums, paintings, autobiography and as an impassioned Holocaust spokesperson.
After the world premiere at the FLIFF (2018) in Hollywood (Florida, USA), and screening at the Paris (2021) Sydney & Melbourne (2021) and Berlin (2022) Lift-Off Film Festivals, the “The Robert Clary Story” film is now made public worldwide available for free watching via their YouTube channel by Richard Bloom Productions (richardbloomproductions•com).
Special thanks to Robert Clary, and Christopher Ray Allison (interview – cinematography) and Nathaniel Link (interview – sound) and many many others…
Watch Free Online – The Robert Clary Story | 20220301 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
In 1935 the nomadic Sinti families Steinbach were photographed by Dutch photographer Jan de Jong in their caravan camp on the heath around the Heksenberg hill in the southern Netherlands. Jan de Jong was working for De Spaarnestad publishing house of the dutch weekly, catholic, illustrated magazine “Katholieke Illustratie” , that used his high quality pictures in this May 1936 spread (REF 1), with a somewhat simple romanticized short story on their origin and culture – entitled ‘Zwervers van geboorte’ or ‘Born nomad’ (my translation).
Members of other Steinbach families, I recognized in this magazine spread in the caravan window image with caption ‘Buurpraatje’ (my tr. ‘Neighbor chat’), are Anna Steinbach in the window (born 24 March 1916 – killed 31 July 1944 in Auschwitz) talking with Maria Steinbach (born 6 Nov 1912 – killed 31 July 1944 in Auschwitz) .
The 15 year old Willy (Celestinus) Steinbach (born 13 Feb 1929 in Heerlen) was deported together with his 9-year old sister Settela ((Anna Maria) Steinbach (born 23 Dec 1934 in Buchten), their brothers, sisters (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 Auschwitz — and some, like Willy, later to other camps.
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 Mechelen to Auschwitz, were they were murdered on arrival.
Note : I found Jeanette on the Transport lists in the image bank of Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen – but not yet her mother Magdalena.
Settela’s father Moeselman (Heinrich) 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.
Their deporatation was filmed for the Westerbork Film by Rudolf Breslauer (REF 2).
This post is based on the story of the Steinbach families as researched in detail and published in book (REF 3) and film (REF 4) by Rob Hendrikx and Marouska Steinbach.
Update May 20, 2021 – Minor corrections in text , plus more detailed family information added. Poster image film replaced with clearer portrait image of Willy.
Below – because of space and linking constraints on social media – the references, source and full credits on websites only – eg. of Settela•Com
CREDITS & REFERENCES
1 – Source – photography Jan de Jong – in ‘Zwervers van Geboorte’ | Katholieke Illustratie 7 mei 1936 No 32 (Haarlem, Spaarnestad) via Delpher archive URL https://bit.ly/3f1jv90
2 – Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 (accessed 2021 May 19) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-1x
3 – Story based on book : Settela en Willy en Het geheim van de Heksenberg (2e druk) by Rob Hendrikx and Marouska Steinbach (Heerlen : Historisch Goud – Rijckheyt, centrum voor regionale geschiedenis en Stichting Historische Kring “Het Land van Herle”, April 2017) ISBN 9789082241686. URL https://www.landvanherle.nl/product/settela-en-willy-en-het-geheim-van-de-heksenberg-2e-druk/
4 – Story based on Films : ‘Settela en Willy’ by Rob Hendrikx & Marouska Steinbach | lifepowervideo YouTube user | (accessed 2021 May 19) Deel 1 Historische Gebeurtenissen link https://youtu.be/1wI9_vt9RlY | Deel 4 Holocaust Slachtoffers https://youtu.be/wVta6g6Mo1o
Willy & Settela | Born Nomad | 20210519 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Updates
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
20230518 – Credits and references updated with ISSN
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 | ISSN 2949-9313 (accessed 2021 May 17) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-3e
3 – Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 (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 | ISSN 2949-9313 (accessed 2021 May 17) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
Westerbork Film Football Edit | Edition 2021 | 20210517 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Updates
20220604 – Format changes credit line , references
20230518 – Credits and references updated with ISSN
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 | ISSN 2949-9313 (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.
3 – ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen; ISBN 9023232658
4 – Unknown Westerbork Film Reel…F1014 | 20190616 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 (accessed 2021 May 15) URL: https://wp.me/p91enH-2b
Brits-Nederlandse propagandafilm over de Nederlandse vliegeniers, ‘vliegende Hollanders’, tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog en bij hun thuiskomst na de overwinning op de Duitsers.
De stijl van de film is heroïsch en bestaat uit fragmenten van archief-, journaal- en speelfilms. Met Philip Bloemendaalachtige voice-over.
De film begint op 10 mei 1940 en toont de overmacht van de Duitsers – voor de Nederlanders was het ‘geen oorlog zoals zij zich die voorstelden’. Te zien zijn beelden van de Duitse inval in het Westen met o.a. de landing bij Moerdijkbruggen en het bombardement op Rotterdam, de gevechten bij Sedan, de Nederlandse overgave, vluchtende Nederlanders naar Engeland en de aankomst van de Koningin Wilhelmina in Londen.
Nederlanders in opleiding bij de RAF als vliegtuigbemanningen. Oefenen op de schietbaan. Nederlanders in eigen land bij het ondergrondse verzet. Ook aandacht voor drukken van illegaal drukwerk in Nederland. Het verspreiden van De Waarheid. “Dit volk bleef aan de overwinning geloven”. Gedwongen te werk stellen in Duitsland, de Arbeidseinsatz. Geloof in de vrijheid werd gevoed door de kerken. Preek vanaf de kansel. ZKH prins Bernhard bij het 322 squadron met hun mascotte, de papegaai Polly Grey. Beelden van aanvallen op Duitse transporten. Verschillende vliegtuigen zijn te zien, zoals de Spitfire, Hawker Typhoon, B-25 Mitchell bommenwerpers en Lancasters. Zij die dit overleefden kregen hulp, van o.a. mevrouw Van Bruggen die vertelt over een gebeurtenis in november 1943, toen een RAF-piloot was neergestort bij een boerderij in de buurt. Samen met de boerin hielpen ze de piloot, en een aantal van zijn collega’s, te ontsnappen, terug naar Engeland.
De invasie in Normandië, tijdens D-Day. “En de kust werd genomen”. Ook de Nederlandse middelzware bommenwerpers werden door Montgomery ingezet. Het oprukken van de geallieerde troepen door Noord-Frankrijk, België en Nederland. Beelden van Artillerievuur en gevangen Duitse soldaten. De bevrijding van Rouan, Amiens, België en Eindhoven.
Landen van North American B-25 Mitchell op vliegbasis [Soesterberg]. Ontvangst en huldiging op het kasteel van Helmond. Een officieel welkom door de burgemeester van ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Daarna komen de Vliegende Hollanders thuis. Vervolgens speldt ZKH prins Bernhard bij sommigen van hen het Vliegerkruis op. Sommige Vliegende Hollanders keerden niet terug…. “Aan hun nagedachtenis wordt deze film eerbiedig opgedragen.” Hun namen verschijnen in beeld.
1945 – Return Of The Flying Dutchman
British-Dutch propaganda film about the Dutch aviators, ‘flying Dutchmen’, in the Royal Air Force — in the Fighter Command, the Bomber Command and the Pathfinder Force — during the Second World War, and on their return home after the victory over the Germans.
World War II propaganda film (1945) produced by the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit & Nederlandsche Luchtstrijdkrachten.
The film is composed of scenes taken from numerous films made between 1940 and 1945.
The film starts with the ‘Blitzkrieg’ in Holland, the German invasion by surprise – landing in the West of Holland , bombing of Rotterdam, and escape of the dutch Queen Wilhelmina arriving in London.
Next training of the RAF flight crews, and of the dutch resistance in Holland is shown, and the forced labor of Dutch workers in Germany – the ‘Arbeitseinsatz’.
The dutch Prince Bernhard visits the Dutch squadron of the Royal Air Force – RAF 322.
Following the Normandy invasion, the British army advances in France and Belgium on its way to the Netherlands. The enthusiastic residents of the dutch city of Eindhoven welcome the tanks. Prince Bernhard honors the brave pilots with the Airman’s Cross (Dutch: Vliegerkruis) . Finally, a plaque shows the long list of names of those who fell in the five war years.
Credit
Return Of The Flying Dutchman ~ Film ‘Terugkeer Van Den Vliegenden Hollander’ produced (1945) by the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit & Nederlandsche Luchtstrijdkrachten ~ Source : “Collection Netherlands Institute of Military History” – thanks to Stephan Deiters | NIMH .
Remastered film :
1945 – Terugkeer Van Den Vliegenden Hollander | Return Of The Flying Dutchman | 20210508 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0 .
