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

PUSH Opera Epilogue 2020 | Westerborkfilm Images #2 | 20230728

Images from the Westerborkfilm have been used countless times in documentaries and films about the Second World War. Here images screening in the virtual opera PUSH – based on the story of Simon Gronowski – an 11 year old Jewish boy who was pushed from the train – Transport XX – by his mother on the way to Auschwitz — Video clip https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxsM6Rj_HB0xEh4TksbjhIm4EzY81dc4H0

A virtual performance, during the April 2020 Corona virus lockdown, of the epilogue of the community opera PUSH , entitled : Ma Vie N’est Que Miracles | My life is only miracles – hosted by composer Howard Moody. It premiered on the night of the 19th April 2020, exactly 77 years after three Brussels resistance heroes stopped the Nazi train Transport XX, transporting 1600 Jewish deportees to Auschwitz, and more than 200 prisoners escaped from the train before the German border. Info : michelvanderburg.com/2020/04/19 .

#Westerborkfilm #footage #PUSH #Miracle #virtual #child #community #opera #online #Simon Gronowski #Transport #XX #music #premiere #Howard #Moody #Sarah #Ehrlich #Shogo #Hino #liberation #Brussels #Corona #covid #virus #home #lockdown #performance #Adrian #Zolotuhin #Belgium #Mechelen #Kazerne #Dossin #Westerbork #Holland #Netherlands #transit #camp #deportation #train #car #film #screening #holocaust #shoah #genocide #discrimination #diversity #rights #art #war #Jew #Sinti #Roma #nazi #survival #collaboration #SettelaCom #ISSN29499313 #TakeNode #1Memo #MiraclesMedia #michelvanderburg

Sally’s Invasion Star

June 25, 2023 — Contact between the families of Sally and Nelly is re-established !

Sally Frankenthal – Kalwary was living in Antwerp in the 90s when she requested Yad Vashem a Righteous medal posthumous for “Nelly Quintard” .. the lady that had been hiding Sally Frankenthal and her parents during World War II. However, Mrs. Sally Kalwary – Frankenthal was not able to find Nelly’s family …. and the medal went to the Kazerne Dossin museum in Mechelen.

This month contact was re-established with Sally’s family. Unfortunately, too late to meet Sally Frankenthal – Kalwary, who died three years ago.
Sally’s family shared photo’s taken of Sally before and after her hiding — both with stars…posted in today’s update of the Story of Righteous Nelly • Quintart aka Quintard .

References

Sally’s Invasion Star | 20230625 | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | URL https://settela.com/2023/06/25

Liberation Holland – The Underground Camera of Menno Huizinga

Menno Huizinga (1907–1947) took photographs illegally during the occupation , mainly in his hometown The Hague in Holland.
He was a member of the group of Dutch photographers ‘De Ondergedoken Camera’ (1943-1945) – The Underground Camera – doing resistance work during the Second World War.
‘Liberation Holland – The Underground Camera of Menno Huizinga’ is a silent film by Michel van der Burg , using photographs made by Menno Huizinga from the public domain collection of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies , curated by Dutch Network War Collections (NOB) for WO2 Open Data Depot via Wikimedia Commons.
Film: Liberation Holland | The Underground Camera of Menno Huizinga | 20190606 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0 .

Updates

20220604 – Format changes credit line

20230518 – Credits updated with ISSN