us-005578-irn1005072
type: RecordSet
biographical history: 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.
date: Winter 1942
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had identifier: 2
has or had some members with language: Silent
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn1005072
note: Maarten was born on December 26, 1941 and he would have been an infant in the winter of 1942. It is possible that the baby pictured in this film is not Maarten, although the can label reads:"Willie and baby Maarten winter '4". This 8mm film was exposed at 12 frames per second and was projected many times.
scope and content: Sonja and Louis de Kadt each push Willie on a sleigh on a snowy day, as does another adult (possibly a nanny); Willie plays in the snow; 01:03:03 Indoors, close-up of Willie and a baby (possibly Maarten as the can label indicates); Willie romps in the snow; the village in winter, seen from across rows of fences; Willie and baby (Maarten?) ride in a sleigh.
title: De Kadt family in winter