Quick shots of a woman walking away from the camera, baby, a man working on railroad tracks, Sonja carrying Willie in a crowd of people, a house from across a set of railroad tracks, while a train passes; 01:00:54 a road sign reads"Laag Soere" (a village 140 km away from the de Kadt family home in Schoorl); 01:01:27 a large group of adults, including Sonja and Louis de Kadt, wait for a train, walk together on a country road in winter; a male adult pulling a stroller does an imitation of a goose-step; good CUs; hotel; 01:04:14 a group portrait including two strollers; Sonja's younger sister Agnes rides in one of the strollers; they walk along a country road; 01:05:42 Sonja poses in front of a field of felled trees, and plays with a dog; views of a field and forest beyond; close-ups of Willie and another child (possibly the daughter of one of Sonja and Lou's best friends, Kees van Wyck) in their strollers; 01:07:01 a large ship travels up a canal; men operate a set of locks, using long sticks to break the ice on the canal's surface in order to close the locks; the boat sails away; visitors; 01:11:26 another lock in operation.
Samuel and Margaretha Swaap surreptitiously found hiding places for their grandchildren, Wilhelmina (age 2) and Maarten (age 8 months) in August 1942. The children's parents, Louis de Kadt, 29 (born May 13, 1913), and Sonja Rita de Kadt-Swaap, 22 (born October 8, 1919), were murdered in Auschwitz on August 10, 1942. They were rounded up from their home in Amsterdam, forced to gather in the Hollandsche Schouwburg theater, and deported to the transit camp Westerbork, and later to Auschwitz. Wilhelmina lived outside Amsterdam in hiding with a devout Catholic family called van der Zijden, while Maarten was housed by a Protestant couple nearby. Wilhelmina says,"We weren't far apart. I was able to visit my brother occasionally, but I didn't know he was my brother. I thought he was just a friend" Samuel and Margaretha Swaap were deported from Westerbork to Bergen Belsen on May 19, 1944; Samuel died there in February 1945. Margaretha was freed from the camp but hospitalized for two months as she recovered from deprivation-related illnesses. At 52, she immigrated to New York with the children and reunited with her surviving daughter. Margaretha retrieved the family's possessions, including these films.
This 8mm film was exposed at 12 frames per second and was projected many times.
De Kadt children; train station; canal locks