Aufschub . Respite

Verzio FF Westerbork camp was established by the Dutch government in October 1939 to intern Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. From 1942 to 1944 it served as a transit camp for Jews and Roma before they were deported to extermination camps. In these years, a freight tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Farocki, Harun
Institution:Open Society Archives at Central European University
Published: Farocki, Harun 2007
Germany
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:13617f2b-c9a9-4b45-bb36-6e7585f8285b
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author2 Farocki, Harun
author_facet Farocki, Harun
collection OSA Film Library
dateSpan 2007
description Verzio FF Westerbork camp was established by the Dutch government in October 1939 to intern Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. From 1942 to 1944 it served as a transit camp for Jews and Roma before they were deported to extermination camps. In these years, a freight train left every week for Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen or the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Westerbork was a very strange place. There was a school, a hair-dresser, an orchestra and even a restaurant. These "comforts" were designed by the SS in order to avoid problems during further deportations. Harun Farocki resurrects footage shot by temporary inmate Rudolf Breslauer, who was commissioned by the camp's SS commandant to produce a glossy film about camp life. Breslauer devoted much of his footage to the varied work and activities of the inmates, and also filmed the unloading and loading of incoming and outgoing trains. A close study of the surviving 16mm footage discloses chilling details of everyday life at Westerbork, but also questions generally accepted visual understandings and impressions of the concentration camp system.
genre libraryUnit
geographic Germany
id bulk_4D49E79F-8CC0-4884-A229-374BD4FE4358
institution Open Society Archives at Central European University
publishDate 2007
publisher Farocki, Harun
Germany
spellingShingle Aufschub . Respite
[Documentary film]
title Aufschub . Respite
topic [Documentary film]
url http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:13617f2b-c9a9-4b45-bb36-6e7585f8285b