Today started with an interview (movie stars) that the college wanted. There are a series of six films they are putting together and this is just one portion of them. Marty Finch and I were interviewed as the Americans and the main focus of the film will be Pytrick and Jaap. The big yellow infinity symbol represents life-long learning at Noorderpoort schools.
The interviews were just like in the movies; much more time setting up than actual taping. And then much more taping than actual usage. We were there for 2 hours and they expect to have a 3 minute film. And you had to be quiet on the set!
Pytrick, Marty, and I picked up Will in Pytrick's van and we went to Kamp Westerbork. On the almost 2 K walk to the site, there were a lot of educational displays. First it was the solar system, talking about each of the planets. Then there was this parabolic dish set up, across about a 25 yard space. Will is "talking" into the ring and the parabolic properties of the dish sent is voice, crystal clear to the other dish.
Will, Marty,and Pytrick in front of a restored transportation cars. Similar ones were used to deport 102,000 Jews to other camps. Kamp Westerbork was a relocation camp, collecting Jews for a couple of years and then moving them out. There were 94 trainloads of people sent out over the approximately 2 year period the camp was open. It was a little odd taking pictures at the camp as it certainly isn't the typical tourist destination and I didn't at first. But it is an important piece of history which needs to be shared and remembered.
The orange poles in the pictures have actors reading excerpts of mail or diaries from the detainees.
This is part of the rail line. The artist has 97 rail road sleepers, one for every trainload of people sent out (94 from Westerbork, three from other places in the Netherlands). The rail is distressed to show the struggle and stretched up to show hope.
There are 102,000 stones in this display, one for every person deported.
If the person was Jewish, there is a Star of David and then a different symbol for other religions. There were numerous pictures of people in amongst the stones. The Jewish leaders of some communities cooperated (had other Jews follow the Nazi demands of wearing a yellow star, etc.) where in some communities there was greater resistance and a higher survival rate for Jews.
Where the trains from Westerbork went as their final destinations.
The camp size as of March, 1945
Some of the photos in the museum.
It was fitting that we saw some late blooming tulips when we left the camp.
When we got back into town, I met Jaap at his condo and we biked back to Martin Plaza for the professional basketball game. The team is Donar and they were playing game two of the championship series; the first game at home. They had lost on the road by 40 the night before.
Here we are having dinner before the game in the stadium restaurant (the facility also has meeting rooms and a theatre).
The stands were quickly filling up and every Donar fan got a T-shirt.
Here is our team. Several of them are former college players from the US. Lance Jeter was on player. No relation to Coach Rob Jeter of the UWM Panthers.
We were in the game, but rarely ahead...
We only lost by 9. (But they lost again Saturday night, so are down 0-3 in the best of seven series.) Here we are in the after game reception area.
It was around 10 when we left and it was still quite light out. We did not need lights on our bikes to get home--we could see well enough and were visible enough to those around us.
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