Cinema Holland News 1938 | 20220227 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | Mix of Dutch cinema news in 1938 by Polygoon Hollands Nieuws (source OpenImages) on the imminent international war situation with precautions by the Dutch army in Holland ~ the sheltering in Holland of Jewish children fleeing fascism in Germany ~ and a Film Ball in the Kurhaus (The Hague) with directors, actors, actresses swinging on recent hit music – Bei Mir Bistu Shein / Bei mir bist du schön – by the Brussels bandleader Stan Brenders & the NIR Jazz Orchestra.
Jordaan Amsterdam 1931 * | 20210728 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Cinema news reel screened first in Holland in 1931 on the occasion of the upcoming renovation of the poor Jordaan district.
Daily life in the Jordaan district showing the Egelantiersstraat street and Prinsengracht canal with eg. a street sweeper near a city cleaning truck (I guess), bal playing kids, hand carts, horse-drawn wagons, a greengrocer, a woman with a tub cleaning a little cupboard or stove, kids play marbles, girls with breads, jump rope, a black doll, a scissors-grinder and inland ships in the Prinsengracht canal (near the corner Rozenstraat) with a tram car and the Westerkerk church in the background , and the Prinsengracht continuing on the left side of the church were Anne Frank’s family would start living some 10 years later.
Source film footage , Orion – Revue, cinema news reel 1931 “De Amsterdamsche Jordaan Wordt Gesaneerd” (Renovation of the Amsterdam Jordaan) – courtesy of Orion Filmfabriek, Den Haag (producer; Orion Filmfactory, The Hague) | Orion-Profilti | RVD Film- en Fotoarchief (1-3420) | Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (Sound and Vision).
Music : Clair du Lune (Debussy) by Ohad Ben Ari | Artlist
Note
* Update title July 30, 2021 : This title ‘Jordaan Amsterdam 1931’ replaces the inaccurate and misleading original title (burned in film) “Jordaan Jewish Quarter Amsterdam 1931”. Because though Jews were living there (like Anne Frank’s family 9-10 years later – the actual center of the Jews of Amsterdam the centuries old ‘Jodenbuurt’ (literally Jews quarter) is a district on the opposite side of the historic inner city.
Caravan dwellers in 1923 at the Binckhorsthoek site in The Hague, Holland.
Note the ‘license plate’ numbers G-932 from ’s-Gravenhage (The Hague) and H-491 from Haarlem town. Information from the dutch book :
Sinti en Roma in Den Haag (2021) Peter Jorna | Haags Gemeentearchief | haagsgemeentearchief•nl
Source video : Polygoon-Profilti (Producer | Jan 1, 1923) courtesy of Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Open Images). Music : Creme Brulee by Ziv Moran | Artlist
Travellers Holland 1923 | 20210529 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
Evrard Voorpijls – Belgian political prisoner , resistance fighter – told a grim story on Gestapo torture methods, during the Last Witnesses – “De Laatste Getuigen” – book (ISBN 9789054877370) presentation by Marc Van Roosbroeck (chairman of vzw “De werkgroep 10 december 2008”) on 20 May 2011 in Tongeren , Belgium.
Evrard Voorpijls (born 6 March 1923) died at the age of 89 (March 5, 2013) in the town he was born, in Maaseik, Belgium.
First post 20210520 – Updated film (for music copyright reasons dd 20210521 by shortened film edition, with replacement of the Belgian national anthem ‘La Brabançonne’ by an U.S. Navy performance of François Van Campenhout’s composition (public domain retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org) .
TRANSCRIPT
Ik ben aangehouden geworden, nieuwjaar 1944.
Ik werd overgebracht van Maaseik naar Hasselt, naar de gevangenis.
En de tweede dag dat ik in die gevangenis zat in Hasselt, heeft de Sicherheitsdienst die gehuisvest was op de Havermarkt te Hasselt, recht tegenover het gerechtshof …
Ik werd daar naartoe gebracht.
En met handen op de rug achter de stoel gebonden.
Scherp licht op mijn ogen gezet.
En ze hadden juist, de opdracht, wat ik deed in de weerstand.
Ik werd ondervraagd, en ik heb dat altijd doen afschreeuwen.
Ik werd beschuldigd, dat ik wapens en munitie van Wallonie naar Maaskant bracht.
Dat ik de sluikpers verspreidde – dat was in die tijd de ‘De Rode Vaan’.
Ik heb Russische en Franse krijgsgevangen – die ontvlucht waren – heb ik geholpen.
En eventueel zelfs piloten die ik aangewezen kreeg, dat ik die dan naar een weerstands-huis moest brengen, en van daaruit gingen ze dan terug naar Engeland, over Frankrijk en Spanje.
Ik heb het altijd afgeschreeuwd, waarvan ik beschuldigd werd.
En ik heb gezegd tegen de ondervragers:
Hoe kan ik dat gedaan hebben ?
Ik, als mijnwerker, want …
Als mijnwerker, was het geluk onder den oorlog – ge werd nooit naar Duitsland gevoerd, want ge werkte voor de Duitsers – daar werd wel sabotage gepleegd in de kolenmijnen.
Ze hebben mij geslagen en gestampt.
Totdat ik bewusteloos neerviel op de vloer.
Ik kreeg een kom water over mijn gezicht gesmeten.
Terug … ondervraagd , drie dagen aan één stuk.
Dan hebben ze me weer terug naar de gevangenis gebracht in Hasselt.
En de week daarna zijn we overgebracht worden, naar Antwerpen, naar de Begijnenstraat, naar de Wehrmacht gevangenis.
Daar ben ik dan ondervraagd geworden door de Gestapo in de Dellafaillelaan onder in de kelder.
Toen ze mij daar binnen brachten – zag ik bloedplekken op de muren.
Toen begon ik toch een beetje te bibberen, zal ik maar zeggen.
Maar van de ene kant – ik ben een stijfkop.
En dat ben ik nog – wat ik voor heb , dat moet gebeuren.
Ze hebben me weer ondervraagt .
Dezelfde vragen gesteld als in Hasselt.
Ik bleef altijd hetzelfde zeggen.
En te lange laatste, na 3-4 dagen ondervraging…
…hebben ze mij duimschroeven opgezet –
op deze vingers – want dat zijn de pijnlijkste vingers , als ge aan het werk zijt.
Nog niet bekennen – aandraaien , aandraaien, aandraaien – nog niet toegeven.
En toen, hebben ze tandenstokers onder mijn nagels geklopt.
Nog niet toegeven.
En toen, hebben ze ijskoud, die nagels uitgetrokken.
En als ge wilt – ge kunt het zien :
Ze zijn mismaakt – en met die handen kan ik niet veel doen.
Zelfs de grote tenen – hebben ze de nagels uitgetrokken.
Dat was hier bij de ondervraging door de Gestapo.
Marc Van Roosbroeck (voorzitter) : Dank u wel Evrard, voor deze zeer moedige getuigenis.
—
TRANSLATION (20210525) by Michel van der Burg
I have been apprehended, New Year 1944.
I was transferred from Maaseik to Hasselt, to prison.
The second day in that prison…
taken to the Sicherheitsdienst…
housed at the Havermarkt in Hasselt…
right in front of the court.
I was taken there.
And…with hands behind my back…
tied to a chair.
Bright light, put on my eyes.
They were right…about my assignment…
what I was doing in the resistance.
I was interrogated…
and that, I always have screamed away.
I was accused, of bringing weapons and ammunition,
from Wallonia to the Maaskant.
That I distributed the clandestine press…
that was ‘De Rode Vaan’ at the time.
I helped Russian and French prisoners of war, who had fled.
And, on occasion, even pilots that I was assigned.
I had to take them to a resistance house…
from which they went back to England – over France and Spain.
I have always denied their accusations.
And I said to the interrogators:
How could I have done that?
Me, as a miner, because…
As a miner…luck was…during the war…
you were never taken to Germany…
because, you worked for the Germans…
though, sabotage was committed there in the coal mines.
They hit and kicked me.
Until I fell unconscious on the floor.
I got a bowl of water thrown in my face.
Then, interrogated again, three days in a row.
Then, they brought me back to prison, in Hasselt.
And the week after, we were transferred…
to Antwerp, to the Begijnenstraat, to the Wehrmacht prison.
There, I was interrogated by the Gestapo…
in the Dellafaillelaan, in the basement.
When they brought me in there…
I saw blood stains on the walls.
Then, I started to shiver a bit…so to speak.
But on the other hand…I’m a pigheaded person.
And I still am : what I’m planning, that must be done.
They interrogated me again.
Asked the same questions as in Hasselt.
I always kept saying the same thing.
And finally, after 3-4 days of interrogation…
they put thumbscrews on me…
on these fingers…
because, those are the most painful fingers…
when you are at work.
Still don’t confess…
tighten, tighten, tighten…
still don’t give in.
And then, they knocked toothpicks under my fingernails.
Still don’t give in.
And then, they icily, pulled those nails out.
And if you like…
you can see it :
they are deformed…
and I can’t do much with those hands .
Even the big toes…they have pulled out the nails.
That was here at the Gestapo interrogation.
Marc Van Roosbroeck (chairman) : Thanks for this very courageous testimony.
Credits
Testimony by Evrard Voorpijls during the Last Witnesses – “De Laatste Getuigen” – book (ISBN 9789054877370) presentation by Marc Van Roosbroeck (chairman of vzw “De werkgroep 10 december 2008”) on 20 May 2011 in Tongeren , Belgium.
Transcript & Translation (20210525) by Michel van der Burg.
Gestapo Methods | Evrard Voorpijls | 20210520 2nd edition 20210521 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313
News
20210525 – English translation CC added in YouTube video. Both transcript (Flemish) and translation added in website post.
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism – located between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany – filmed in 2013.
The monument is dedicated to the memory of the estimated 500,000 European Roma and Sinti that were murdered during the Holocaust – called Porajmos or Pharrajimos in the Romani language (“the Devouring” or “Destruction”) – the genocide of the European Sinti and Roma peoples by the German Nazis and their fascist allies ( http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home ).
The memorial by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan consists of a circular pool of water with a triangular stone in the center upon which a fresh flower is placed daily.
At the site you hear the sound, a note of a lonely violin from a composition/sound installation titled “Mare Manuschenge” / “Our People” by Romeo Franz, a Sinto musician, composer and politician in Germany.
Karavan : „dem Klang einer einsamen Geige allein geblieben von der gemordeten Melodie, schwebend im Schmerz“
Romeo Franz:
Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of the Sinti and Roma, called me in 2012 and said he was looking for a violinist who could play just one single note at the ceremony. I tried, but at some point I couldn’t stand this note any longer. Instead I imitated a whistle that Sinti often use to call their children. It’s a sound that each of us recognise, it’s a bit like a mark of identification, a signal. Then I transposed it onto the gypsy minor scale. Shortly before the memorial was completed, I met with Dani Caravan, the Israeli architect who designed the memorial, at the construction site, and he said, “That’s it!” For me, it was possibly the most significant thing I’ve ever achieved in my life.
From : The Handreader’s Tale via https://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/en/magazine/magazine_26-1/the_handreaders_tale.html
Note
Yesterday – August 4, 2019 – a more subjective short film impression of the memorial was posted see ‘Porajmos Memorial Sinti Roma Europe’ ~ https://settela.com/2019/08/04/porajmos-memorial-sinti-roma-europe/ More information on this memorial also in that 20190804 post.
Film: Mare Manuschenge | Music Roma Memorial Berlin | 20190805 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism, filmed in 2013 in the Tiergarten (close to other Holocaust memorials) in Berlin – between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate, in Germany.
The monument is dedicated to the memory of the estimated 500,000 European Roma and Sinti that were murdered during the Holocaust – called Porajmos or Pharrajimos in the Romani language (“the Devouring” or “Destruction”) – the genocide of the European Sinti and Roma peoples by the German Nazis and their fascist allies ( http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home ).
August 2 is European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day commemorating this genocide of Roma people during World War II. Declared by the European Parliament in 2015 (Resolution 2015/2615), the day marks the anniversary of the extermination of around 3,000 Roma at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the night of 2 August 1944. The so-called Gypsy Camp in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp was dissolved – or “liquidated,” as the SS called it.
Settela Steinbach (9) was one of those murdered early August 1944, now 75 years ago.
The memorial (by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan) consists of a circular pool of water with a triangular stone in the center (not shown in this film) upon which a fresh flower is placed daily.
Film: Porajmos Memorial Sinti Roma Europe | 20190804 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0
Poem “Auschwitz” by Santino Spinelli
In a ring around the pond in English and German – and in two Romani dialects on a stone – are the words of the poem “Auschwitz” by Santino Spinelli (artist name Alexian), a Rom from the Abruzzi region of Italy – a musician, poet, teacher, composer and essayist.
Auschwitz (Original)
Muj šukkó, kjá kalé vušt šurde; kwit. Jilo čindó bi dox, bi lav, nikt ruvbé.
Auschwitz (Deutsch)
Eingefallenes Gesicht, erloschene Augen, kalte Lippen. Stille. Ein zerrissenes Herz, ohne Atem, ohne Worte, keine Tränen.
Auschwitz (English)
Pallid face, dead eyes, cold lips. Silence. A broken heart without breath, without words, no tears.
Music “Mare Manuschenge” by Romeo Franz
At the site you faintly hear the sound, a note of a lonely violin from a composition/sound installation titled “Mare Manuschenge” / “Our People” by Romeo Franz, a Sinto musician, composer and politician in Germany.
The sound in this film I posted is mixed from several video recordings there, with the emphasis on the sound from one video of one of the loudspeakers in the surrounding trees.
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
1. Westerbork Film | Full version RVD 1986 | 20190605 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0 ; (accessed 2019 Jun 15). Short-link https://wp.me/p91enH-1x
2. ‘Kamp Westerbork gefilmd’ by Koert Broersma and Gerard Rossing (editors Dirk Mulder and Ben Prinsen); ISBN 9023232658
3. Forgotten Westerbork Film Reel…F1015 | 20190615 | Michel van der Burg | Settela•Com | ISSN 2949-9313 | CC BY 4.0 ; (accessed 2019 Jun 16). Short-link https://wp.me/p91enH-2a
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
