Westerbork

Westerbork was a Transit Camp situated in the north of The Netherlands. It was built by the Dutch Government to accommodate the influx of refugees especially from Germany and opened in the summer of 1939. These were mainly displaced Jewish residents from Germany who had lost their citizenship. Many German Jews were able to work and to a certain extent were able to assimilate into Dutch society. One group of such people were entertainers who put on performances at Amsterdam theatres, especially the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Willy Rosen produced shows at the seaside resort of Scheveningen. Many actors were attracted to both theatres where they could perform as they had done previously in Germany. In 1941 following the invasion of The Netherlands the Germans took over Westerbork Kamp and used it as a transit camp for holding Jews from Germany, The Netherlands as well as other European countries were Jews had been detained.

Theatre of Despair

A slide show about the Westerbork Camp Theatre (Stefan Zweig)

Westerbork Act 1

Arrival and Registration at Westerbork 

( Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid) 

Westerbork to Auschwitz  (NU.nl)

The first transport took 1,139 people to Auschwitz Birkenau on 15 July 1942. The last transport to Auschwitz was on 3 September 1994 with 1,019 people. The next day a transport with Willy Rosen and another 2,079 people left for Terezin. The very last transport was on 13 September 1944. There were 104 transports from Westerbork, sending 102,763 people to their deaths.

The Buhne (Stage)

The Gruppe Bühne Lager Westerbork (Theatre Group Camp Westerbork) was an ensemble of Jewish performers—including famous singers, dancers, and actors—forced to put on cabaret shows, revues, and theater performances inside the Nazi transit camp in occupied Holland. Led by figures like Willy Rosen, Erich Ziegler and Max Ehrlich, they performed in 1943-1944 for inmates and staff, part of a "perfection camp" illusion designed by Commandant Gemmeker to hide the horrific reality of weekly deportations to extermination camps.

Title page of a book presented to Gemmeker on the occasion of his birthday.

Westerbork Wikipedia

* Known to have survived 

Theatre Performers in Westerbork

Beatrice Lissauer*,   Camilla Spira*

Catherina Frank*,  Chaja Goldstein*

Erich Ziegler*, Esther Philipse, 

Flip Sanders, Franz Engel

Günter Witepski, Hannelore Cahn*

Heinz Rosenfeld, Hermann Feiner

Jean Freund, Jetty Cantor*

Jonas Blumenzweig, Jonny and Jones

Josef Baar*

Kurt Gerron, Lisl Frank

Lothar Ringer*, Lotte Heider

Louis Wijze*, Mara Rosen

Mars Roson, Maurice van Kleef

Max Ehrlich, Michel Gobets

Otto Aurich*, Leo Kok*

Ruth Pagener, Simon Dickson-Dekker

Ulla Gross*, Willy Rosen

Westerbork Girls

Beatrice Lissauer*    Catharina Frank*

Anne Katz-Jordan *   Lotte Heider

Margaretha Kahlenberg   Ruth Pagener

Sara Troeder    Sophie Wertheim

Dancers

Simon Dekker Dickson (Choreography)

Otto Aurich*

Orchestra

Jaques Barendse    Ludwig Belitzer (Arr)

Hans Krieg (Chorus Director & Arr)* 

Jack de Vries (Bass)

Jean Freund     Izaak Gokkes

Jack Goudsmit (Trumpet)   

Maurice Cantor (Cello)*

Nardus J van Ploeg    N Slier

S van Weren   Simon Hangjas

W Drukker  Maurits van Kleef (Drums)

Costume

Fritz Bernhard   Greta Schliesser    

I Landa    Joska Levkowitz

Ludwig Belitzer    Michel Cauverin

Veffer

Scenery 

Eugen Frankenstein   Hans Margules*

Herbert Levkowicz     Leo Kok

Technical

Arthur Durlacher   Richard Tuerkel (Lighting) 

Production

Felix Oppenheim     

Hairdresser

 I Lipinski

Gruppe Herzberg 

The best Cabaret in Europe

During 1943 and 1944 at least 16 shows based on 4 programmes were presented, usually on a Monday evening before the Transport left the following morning. The audience did not know who was on the list. They were woken up at 1.00 a.m. and the list was read out. Those chosen for the transport had only 8 hours to get ready. 

If they succeeded in getting their name taken off the list, someone else was put on it. The quota had to be met.

16 Survivors of  Gruppe Bühne Lager Westerbork 

  • Camilla Spira- Released from the Camp by the gestapo upon evidence that her father was not Fritz Spira but Viktor Palfy, who was not Jewish. Her mother luckily remembered who Camilla's father was. Yet apparently today she is recorded as being Jewish but not until the war eneded.
  • Ulla (Ursula) Gross - 1924 to 2008 deported to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz. Transferred to Flossenburg at some point, perhaps on a death march. Survived and married  Jechezkel (Ödön) Wertheimer. Died 2008.
  • Catharina Frank- Sent to Theresienstadt by Adolf Eichmann and safeguarded there under his instructions.
  • Chaja Goldstein- Moved to New York then Israel. Never told her harrowing story.
  • Erich Ziegler- described as one of Gemmeker's Court Jesters. Was kept off the transport by him and survived the war. Died shortly after in 1946. 
  • Hannelore Cahn- Escaped but returned voluntarily, avoiding transport to Auschwitz. Continued singing after the war.
  • Jetty Cantor- Sent to Theresienstadt then onto Auschwitz, where she played in the camp orchestra until liberation
  • Louis de Wijze- Sent eventually to Auschwitz he was still in Auschwitz when it was liberated. He was able to help with the reconstruction, from memory, of some of the songs that Willy Rosen wrote at Westerbork. Music for these songs became lost.
  • Otto Aufrichtig [Aurich] - Aurich went from Westerbork to Theresienstadt, then to Auschwitz and fianlly Buchenwald, where he was liberated.  He died in 1961
  • Leo Kok- Although Leo Kok survived to the liberation of Auschwitz, he died 3 months later in May 1945.
  • Beatrice Lissauer - Married Sandor Salamgne in May 1945, at the camp but were divorced later. She died in 1999.
  • Hans Krieg- Transported to Bergen Belsen then to Theresienstadt, finally liberated on a train at Trobitz in April 1945. Returned to Holland and became well known in Amsterdam, dying suddenly in 1961.
  • Maurice Cantor- Married to Jetty Cantor, died in 1954.
  • Hans Margules- The man seen closing the doors on the wagons going east. Survived the war. 
  • Anne Katz-Jordanwas placed as missing but was found in Bergen Belsen by the relief agency.
  • Josef Baar 1894-1951. Left Germany and went to Netherlands where he appeared in the Nelson Revues. He was imprisoned in Westerbork. After release he appeared again with Nelson in the Revue 1000 Akte at the Minerva Theatre in 1946. 
  • Lothar Ringer 1921-2002

Compositions used in the Westerbork Revues

Ludmilla an Opera Parody by Willy Rosen and Erich Ziegler

It was first performed as part of the Revue entitled “Total Verrückt”, or Totally Crazy, in June 1944. The programme describes the whole revue as Willy Rosen’s Grotesque Revue.

 Ludmilla formed the second half of the Programme. It’s alternative title was “Corpses on a Conveyor Belt.” Did the group know that they were living corpses, being fed into a Murder Factory by Kommandant Gemmeker?

The Programme notes particularly that the Music is written by Maestro Erich Ziegler and the words are by Rosen, the resident poet. The title role is played by Lisl Frank and the role of her father by Otto Aurich. The comedic roles are played by Max Ehrlich and Franz Engel. Also performing are Mara Rosen, Esther Philipse and Jetty Cantor.

The programme also points out that Rosen, has written a happy ending. Scenery is designed by Professor Leo Kok. Also thanked are all the service heads for bending over backwards. 

* Indicates a composition by Willy Rosen

Songs written by Willy Rosen and used in the Revues at Westerbork

10 Songs (from Bunter Abend I and Humor und Melodie)

Most of these songs were written by Willy prior to his time in the camp, for the shows Willy directed at Scheveningen.


Die Mädel von der Hachscharach (from Bunter Abend I)

These songs can be found on YouTube. Click on this link to hear a taster of the songs.

The songs were recalled from memory by Louis de Wijze, then transcribed by Francesco Lotoro.

Also Ute Lemper sang "Wenn ein Packetchen kommt" with The Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble at  Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome as part of a Holocaust Memorial Concert in 2015. 

Click this link to hear the song. Start the video at 4:29. 

Ignore Ute's introduction it is full of inaccuracies. However it was written by Willy Rosen whilst at Westerbork. 

The pianist is Francesco Lotoro, who has collected many songs written in the Nazi camps. There are newspaper articles citing Alan Ehrlich with Francesco Lotoro, unfortunately the journalists included false claims in the articles that Max Ehrlich had written the songs with Willy Rosen. This is wrong as Willy had written most of these songs before entry into Westerbork, when Ehrlich was still in Berlin .