Images from the Westerborkfilm have been used countless times in documentaries and films about the Second World War.
Here Westerborkfilm images – clips – screening semi-permanent ten years ago (Feb. 2013) in a museum introduction film (on holocaust, genocides, discrimination, diversity, rights) on one of the huge columns in the entrance hall of the Kazerne Dossin museum in Mechelen, Belgium (a few months after opening of the new Kazerne Dossin building). Note, shortly after this outbound deportation transport to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, had left the Westerbork transit camp on May 19, 1944, the train paused at the nearby railway station of the dutch town Assen, where train cars were added from Belgian Transport XXV (25) with 508 deportees, Jews and the Roma deportee Stevo Caroli, from transit camp Kazerne Dossin (Dossin barracks) in Mechelen, and this combined transport with Jews, Sinti and Roma, including Settela Steinbach, continues to the east…to the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps. Stevo Caroli survives Auschwitz-Birkenau. After returning to Belgium, Stevo Caroli’s request for a certificate, necessary for the compensation for political deportees or work refusers, is refused by the Belgian Aliens Police for racial reasons ( kazernedossin.memorial/biografie/stevo-karoli/ ).
From 20 January 2023, the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in partnership with the Auschwitz Foundation, presents the exhibition entitled ‘ 236, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy ‘. It is set up in the museum’s project space and offers an artistic look at an exceptional and forgotten event in the Second World War.
The 20th convoy
At 10 p.m. on April 19, 1943, the 20th convoy departed from the Kazerne Dossin transit camp in Mechelen with 1,631 Jewish deportees in cattle cars, heading for Auschwitz. Thanks to resistance actions, both inside the wagons and from outside, 236 of these deportees managed to jump from that train, that was leading them to extermination. An unique event in Europe under the Nazi administration.
Jo Struyven, photographer
The work of the Belgian photographer Jo Struyven (°Sint-Truiden, 1961) takes us back to these acts of resistance – commemorating the 80th anniversary in 2023 – and gives us a glimpse of the landscapes in which this striking story took place. Taking the perspective of those who jumped off that train, an act for which many of them paid with their lives, Struyven creates a contemporary ‘memorial’ with 19 large ‘nocturnal’ black and white images, and one colour print.
Jo Struyven :
The 20th convoy, heading for the unspeakable “Auschwitz”, crossed the area where I grew up, barely 50 meters from my childhood bedroom — I found out 2 years ago after meeting Simon Gronowski. Ever since, I imagine the distress of the deportees. The destination was unknown to them. Some, sensing the worst, tried to escape it. I wanted to give an account of this border between life and death, between resignation and the impossibility of choosing, and the freedom regained with resistance to the oppressor’s plans.
Works presented by Jo Struyven
Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, 19 black and white prints, 1 color print, 90×60 cm (Private collection – Belgium)
Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th convoy 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Wijchmaal (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Bierbeek (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Borgloon (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Piringen (Private Collection, Belgium)Jo Struyven, Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy, 2020-2022, black and white print, 90x 60 cm, Botzelaer (Private Collection, Belgium)
Luc Tuymans, visual artist
In dialogue with Jo Struyven’s photographs, two works by Belgian visual artist Luc Tuymans (°Mortsel, 1958) evoke the destruction of the Jews and Roma of Europe. Die Wiedergutmachung (The Reparation) depicts body parts – left the eyes of gypsy children who had been experimented on by the Nazis. … images that in its incompleteness, reflect the inability to represent facts and memory .
Works presented by Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans, Our New Quarters, 1986, Oil on canvas, 80,5 x 120 cm (MMK – Germany) (Photo Ben Blackwell, courtesy David Zwirner, New York, London)Luc Tuymans, Die Wiedergutmachung, 1989, Oil on cardboard, mounted on plywood, Oil on canvas; diptych, 36,6 x 43 cm, 39,4 x 51,8 cm, courtesy: Private collection (Photo Studio Luc Tuymans)
Art after the Shoah
“Writing a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric”, wrote German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in 1949. Through two contemporary perspectives from the visual arts, this exhibition seeks to address this question of the (im)possibility of art after the Shoah in a new way.
Testimonies & Catalogue
This exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue book edited by Daniel Weyssow and Jo Struyven and published by the Auschwitz Foundation entitled Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy (press release on April 19, 2023), as well as an educational space presenting the testimonies from interviews and archives of convoy escapees.
Info+ ( & Français | Nederlands)
236 Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy Jo Struyven / Luc Tuymans Exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels, Belgium 20 January – 14 August 2023 Brussels Website https://www.mjb-jmb.org
Video report : Vernissage ‘236’ Land(es)capes 20th convoy
Thursday January 19th, 2023, the vernissage of the photo exhibition 236 — Land(es)capes from the 20th Convoy was opened with speeches by Philippe Blondin, President of the Jewish Museum, and by Pierre-Yves Jeholet , Minister-President of the Government of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels. Next, the Belgian photographer Jo Struyven presented his work — escape landscape photographs glowing in the dark — like being lit by moonlight — as well as paintings contributed by Luc Tuymans in the project space. The exhibition runs from January 20 – August 14, 2023 in the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium. Video report (20230120) Michel van der Burg | Miracles•Media .
Jan 20, 2023 – VRT | Kristien Bonneure (Belgian Flemish Broadcast) 20 jan 2023
