All Jew, All Day!

(Me and the 3D Night Watch)
Saturday was a mix. I needed a couple of exterior shots which put us in line to see a few sights I’d been hoping to catch.
We started with a shot of the boarding house where my grandfather lived when he first moved to Amsterdam from the town of Enschede, we think it’s were he met my grandmother. She lived in the boarding house as well.

Around the corner was the Hollandsche Schouwburg. A pre war theatre that was used as a staging camp for deporting jews to concentration camps. All that’s left now is the Facade.

(Dutch Jewish Star)

(Jewish War Children)

(Jews Forbidden)
Around the opposite corner was the Resistance Museum commemorating the Dutch WWII resistance movement and relative war events. It really gave a more personal feel to that time. The most amazing thing was a map they had up that showed the concentration of the Jewish population in Amsterdam.

(Nazi map of the Jewish population concentration)
Each black dot represented 10 Jews. Over the apartment block where my father was born and returned after the war, there was a single dot that probably included him, my uncle John, grandfather, and grandmother.

(My families dot, just left of the building marked "Concert-Geb")
As we worked our way west we stopped at Rembrandt’s house. He’s a favorite of mine and the last time I was in Amsterdam it was closed for renovations. I was so glad to finally get inside.

(The Rembrandt House)
It has some of his work but it’s mainly a reproduction of what the house was like when he lived there. How does this fit the days jewish theme? He lived on the Jodenbreestraat, or the “Jewish Broad Street,” the heart of Dutch Jewish life in Rembrandt’s era.

(Check the blue street sihn above the neon sign)
We sauntered through the flower market district and the area behind the palace as we made our way to the Anne Frank House. When we got there late in the afternoon the line was still around the block, as it often is. We decided not to wait and got a picture of a small Anne Frank monument instead. Maybe we would see it later.

(Anne Frank Memorial)
After a stop back at the apartment to clean up and rest we headed back out Chai’s house at the edge of the city, not far from where Joop and Johan both live. Chai is a cousin of my father and a brother to Bennie. He’s the youngest of three siblings in that family and the most Orthodox. Their had been much going back and forth about where we could be hosted for a seder (the ceremonial dinner had on the first 2 nights of Passover). The only big concern with Chai’s place was that as an orthodox jew he couldn’t start until about an hour after sundown (less religious folk tend to relax the timing rules) which meant that between the prayers and the meal it would be a very late night. But Dad and i are both night owls and were happy both to be invited and to get to see Chai and his family. It was especially nice because as the owner of one of the few kosher food store in town, it’s his busy season.
Actually Chai ran a pretty tight ship, although he didn’t skip any parts he kept things rolling and we were done by 2am, which may sound late but Dad and I had made an estimate of 4. So a cab ride later we were happy, full and getting enough sleep to prepare us for the nest day .... “The Grand Holland Tour Deluxe!”

Shoot!

(Lay-O)
Thursday and Friday were heavy with filming. Thursday Dad and I hit the locations we scouted earlier in the week, starting with my Grandfather’s post war office building. I saw that it got nasty shadows in the afternoon so we needed to hit it in the morning but the clouds came rolling in just as we got there. So we waited it out with Leo the cat (pronounced Lay-O) and breakfast in a cafe across the canal. Yes, apparently dutch restaurants have no rules about animals inside.

(The capitol of Opa's office building)
As soon as things cleared we started shooting, then I realized I may have screwed up the focus, so we shot some more. We followed this with a return to the apartment because it was also Dad’s childhood neighborhood.
We got good footage of the Museumplein, the park where Dad used to play. Back then it was filled with abandoned Nazi bunkers and gun turrets. This was his playground.
Although there is one shot of a woman pulling her pantyhose out of her rear on the left of the screen unaware that she was being filmed. Meanwhile my dad was on screen right, narrating, oblivious to the other action.
As well we got shots of his former street and the door to his old home which was right behind the Amsterdam Concert Building. Plus a series of roving shots around his neighborhood and his route to school.

(Carnival in the Palace Square)
That gave us the night off to check out the touristy areas like the Carnival set up in front of the Royal palace for the upcoming Queen’s Day, the red light district and a restaurant that Dad had taken Mom to about 8 to 10 years earlier.
On Friday we were scheduled to see Dad’s Cousin Johan who is almost a decade older than my Dad so he actually remembers what happened to him. Very important. When I had last talked to him it sounded like he only had maybe 2 hours in the morning so it was going to be tight. Plus we would have to drag the heavy camera equipment bag by public transit to the edge of town where he would pick us up from the station.

(Johan in the car)
Friday morning Johan called, he was coming to pick us up! Not only that, he was free for the whole day but best of all Joop had called Johan because he had misplace my number. It turns out he could come over as well and spend some time on camera.
Now I had 2 of the most important members of the Amsterdam contingent covered in one day! Joop could only spare about an hour but we did brilliantly in that time. He was frank, and surprisingly optimistic in talking about tragedy. And like many of the dutch he had the kind of command of the English language that make me sheepishly shamed about my lack of linguistic skill.

(prepping for a walking shot)
Johan’s english was just as clear but a little slower as he searched for words and was filled with thoughtfulness. The only minor hiccup was Johan’s girlfriend’s dog who does not like strangers and had to be sequesterd in the kitchen. A couple of barks got on the audio track but I think it will be fine. Overall a very successful day.

(Angry, angry dog!)

A Day With Bennie And The Day Before.

(Bennie)
Tuesday was moving day. We checked out of the Blue Tower hotel and took the #13 tram into the heart of city and Renee’s apartment. She was a whirlwind of activity getting ready to leave for Israel so once we had our stuff put away we got out of her hair for the day and spent it location scouting.
Unfortunately I lost two interviews that day. In the morning Joop called to tell me that Bettina’s chemo schedule had changed and that our Wednesday morning interview was off. It was a major set back but there seemed to be nothing to do about it. He said if he found another opportunity he would let me know but I wasn’t feeling hopeful.
Renee also bowed out because she was feeling to crunched for time. This was not a major loss, as much as I wanted her perspective she is of my generation and more distant from the story. What I would really need was her father who had just got back from Italy and we had an appointment for Friday.

(Me and Bennie in front of a monument)
Wednesday we spent a full day with my fathers direct cousin Bennie and his girlfriend Faiga (Fay-gu). Benjamin Mouwes (his mother is a Sanders) is kind of the Keith Richards of our family. A former rock band member and zoo keeper who now works as an analyst for the national archives, he’s energetic, talkative and hard to keep track of through a conversation. A real character, perfect for film.

Bennie met us first and after a morning coffee and a quick inspection of a local monument to Jewish resistance we met Faiga at the Museum of Jewish History where she works. First we checked out a special exhibition on jewish cartoonists which included the creators of Superman and Will Eisner who can arguably be credited with inventing the very idea of superheroes.

(Early 1900's hebrew language comic strip)
I got some great information from the historical section on how Jews came to Holland and their place in society before the war. They were unusually well treated compared to most of europe but were locked out of most skilled trades so they had to turn to peddling, money lending, diamond trading and printing. Jews had the market cornered on publishing in Holland through much of the 17th and 18th century.

(A Torah published by Dutch Jewish printers)
I was amazed to find out that the Nazis forced the textiles factory in the town of Enschede to make the yellow stars that the Jews of Holland had to sew to their clothes during WWII. Enschede is the Dutch town on the German border where my grandfather was born and from what I understand relatives of mine worked there during that period.

(A bolt of fabric with yellow stars with the Dutch word "Jood")
After the museum we also took a wander through the giant Portuguese Synagogue across the street. Faiga tried to keep Bennie on a tight leash through out so he wouldn’t disturb the other patrons. She seems to be as much his den mother and biggest fan.
During a very late lunch Dad, Faiga, and I managed to wrestle him into not only doing an interview but to do it that night!

(Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagogue)
A misplaced dinner reservation and a multi-venue hunt for another dining location caused a late start but by 9pm Bennie was sitting and talking up a storm. I think I got some great stuff. But I think my own little moment of genius was to then put him at a table with my dad and a couple of cups of coffee and just let them talk on film.
I’m starting to feel like a film is happening but there is still a long long way to go.

The Keukenhof and Thea

On Monday we we’re invited by cousin Renee to have an after dinner tea with what seems to be a distant relation that we didn’t know about. This left us with the whole day free since we were still sorting out when we would be meeting up with all the the other family members.

Dad had spotted some pamphlets for bus tours in the hotel lobby including an afternoon tour of De Keukenhof which translates as “The Kitchen Garden.” It’s a sort of all year flower show that has it’s high point in the spring. The specialty is of course Tulips. Apparently it started as the “little kitchen garden” of some local noble woman and that of course means it covers several acres.



I had no strong opinion on it but dad seemed excited about the idea. He had been once before with mom about 10 years ago and wanted to share it. It reminded me of the time when he use to teach an adult ed photography course. He would end each term with a trip to the Allen Garden’s green house so it seemed an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.



It was a beautiful but slightly brisk day. You can see the results for yourself. The place was also a bit of a minor theme park with sugary waffles and a real punch card organ grinder that played a mix of classical music and 80’s hits.



Once we got back into the city, we grabbed a bite at the last kosher sandwich shop in Amsterdam (It seems the hub of the Jewish community has moved to the suburbs) and went to meet Thea Koster-Sanders and her husband. Her connection to us actually goes back further than my grandfather Bendix to his uncle, her grandfather.

I don’t think what we learned will do much for the film but I did like seeing he old photos of these strange people who all looked a little familiar. As well it’s nice to know I’m connected to a bright, charming, successful psychotherapist.



We did find out one interesting thing that could really help. Apparently a shared relation in israel has developed an even more precise family tree than the one I got from Joop some years back. Thea had a copy on her computer and it included her AND me. This means I can track my family from before the Napoleanic census to some time last week. She gave me his contact info and I’m going to follow up to get my own copy.

Joop

(Dad making calls)
Between a wonderful late night in Utrecht and jet lag, wakefulness was in short supply come Sunday morning. Dad and I got up. had the hotel’s pricey breakfast buffet, ran some local errands, made some calls and then proceeded to fall asleep again for a notable chunk of the afternoon.
The main errand was a search for a camera adapter that I couldn’t find in my video bag after we arrived and that I really needed. The search was fruitless but of course a few days later, I found the stupid thing tangled up in a dark corner of my bag.
The calls were all to arrange meetings with my local relatives all of whom had been e-mailed explicitly about my film project and most have whom had committed to at least some kind of get together. Of course now that I was here it was quickly starting to become like herding cats. People were away, people were coming back, people were leaving soon. ... and I don’t mean leaving the house, leaving the country!
It’s easy as you get frustrated to start laying blame for this stuff on everyone else but one of the major problems was in good part my fault. Our visit crosses over the Jewish holiday of Passover. I had this romantic notion of a sort of Hebraic Norman Rockwell scene unfolding as my father returned to the old country to be welcomed with open arms, and I would film it all! ... but like any holiday from any background, everyone was very busy cooking and cleaning and arranging to see family and very short on time.
Two particular family members had a much bigger problem to face. My fathers cousin Joop (pronounced like YO with a “p” on the end) and his wife Bettina had found out recently that she has cancer. It sounds like the diagnosis is comparatively optimistic but she was to start treatment the next week. As well they are fairly Orthodox so once both treatment and passover start overlapping they were just going to be overwhelmed. But they still wanted to see us before things got crazy, so late Sunday afternoon Joop picked us up to take us to his home on the south end of Amsterdam for dinner.

(Joop comes to pick us up)
Along the way he stopped off at the first home where my father (Hans) was reunited with his parents after the war, a place dad didn’t even recall. Finally some filming!
The reason Joop knew the location so well, My grandfather also took in Joop because he was a nephew and had been orphaned by the holocaust. They all lived there together. Which is why I wanted so badly to interview him. Plus it seems Joop has a much stronger sense of recollection than my dad.

(Dad's first post war home)
Funnily when I pulled the camera out to film the house, Joop moved the car to a new parking spot. He was nervous that his car would be targeted by thieves if they saw me pulling out expensive equipment. We thought he was being a bit over zealous but Dad and I just rolled with it.

(Bettina)
After that it was a very pleasant dinner with Joop and Bettina. I had brought my video camera hoping we could squeeze in a quick interview that night, figuring it would be my only chance. I found myself in the tough position of trying to balance sensitivity for a tough situation and trying to do what it takes to do the job right.
Interestingly I found a strong ally in Bettina. It wasn’t going to happen Sunday night because they had plans after dinner but she made Joop agree to do it Wednesday. It made a kind of sense to me. Bettina had the treatment, it gave her something to do but all Joop can do is wait and fret. I think she wanted to give him the distraction.
So after tea and some proper Dutch apple pie, Joop put us on a tram back to the hotel and I finally felt like the engine of this project was starting to pick up some speed.

(Joop)

Rok'n Utrecht

I have to admit when I chose the dates for this trip I had a second motive. By leaving Toronto a few days early I could see a band I’d always wanted to see live in concert, The Presidents of the United States of America.
For some reason I keep missing opportunities to see them in North America, so why not see them in Utrecht? It’s just a half hour south of Amsterdam by train.

Dad was good enough to humor me. We spent the day in Utrecht together and saw the local tourist sights.

This mainly consists of walking along the Ouderacht canal, visiting the Dick Bruna Huis (a museum dedicated to a children’s book author and illustrator) and climbing the Domtoren which is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands. Although it’s no longer connected to any actual church.


After all that Dad headed off to catch the train back to Amsterdam while I went to a bar called De Reunie, where a group of fans were meeting before the show and I was so glad I did.

In a mere hour or so, I went from some poor shlub going to see a band all by his lonesome to part of a group enjoying a show together.


And the show was great! I love my hometown but I do forget how reserved Toronto audiences can be. The whole club (The Tivoli) was immediately whipped up and dancing as soon as the band hit the stage. I may have come the farthest but amongst the people I shared drinks with their were attendees from Belgium, Denmark and Germany.

Flight and Arrival

The flight to Amsterdam was a red eye but neither my Dad nor I got much sleep in the cramped Air France seats. If you the person at the window had to go to the bathroom everyone in the row had to get out.



We ended up taking naps in our hotel in the afternoon before going to my Cousin Renee’s for dinner.We get to have her apartment after she leaves for Israel so we only need the hotel for a few nights. It’s a fair trade off. Hotel life may be cushy but Renee’s place is in the heart of town. It’s also right between Dad’s childhood home and his first school. So it’s good for filming.

(cousin Renee)
The Best Western Blue Tower is in the heart of the Bos En Lommerplein. The hotel is nice but area is considered a bit dodgy. Their has been a huge influx of islamic immigrants to The Netherlands and a lot of tension has arisen from it on both sides. The Bos En Lommerplein is the heart of the local islamic community. Frankly I found it to be clean and uneventful. There are areas of Toronto that make me far more nervous.

I’m Off On A New Adventure!

Camera Kit 2, originally uploaded by tinkerbarry.

I’m off on a new adventure! For some time I’ve been rolling round the idea of capturing the story of my family’s survival of the Holocaust. I first put my toe in last year in Brisbane Australia where I met Tony DeRuyter. Her parents took in my father who was barely a toddler at the beginning of the war, so she was effectively his foster-sister.
I interviewed her on video and that has become the first footage for my documentary, tentatively titled “Project Bendix” for my grandfather Bendix Sanders.
So over the last year I’ve assembled myself a guerilla filmmaker kit, bit by bit. Now I’ve somehow convinced my Dad to come to Amsterdam with me and retrace some of stories and locations that led to his being here today.
Last week he sat down for 3 hours of interviewing and then we were off!

The Best Thing ... EVER!!!

Two hours north of Christchurch, in the town of Kaikoura I got to do one of the things I had been most looking forward to since I started planning my trip. Maybe something I could say I've wanted to do since I was a child. I swam with dolphins.

(Rema's in the middle getting ready to jump back in)
Kaikoura is a coastal town situated at the feeding banks for all kinds of sea life. It wasn't actually included on my bus pass but my driver for the past few days had enough room to do me the great favour of letting me hop on for free. This saved me the hassle and cost of buying a partial leg from the bus company's head office. As we cruised along the coastal highway Stuart the driver told us to keep an eye out for seals and dolphins. We saw a few frolicking seals, which although adorable were no surprise by this point, but no dolphins. Instead I happened to be the first to spot something far more rare in those waters; Killer Whales. A pod of three or four with sleek black fins gliding in and out of the waves. They seemed to be following us up the coast and into the heart of town.

The dolphin swim was arranged through magic bus who had a group deal and I'm lucky they did because I tried booking ahead on my own and there was nothing available for at least two weeks. Thanks again to Stuart. We dropped our gear at the Dusky Lodge hostel and were dropped off ourselves at the Encounter Kaikoura tour company.
I've always liked dolphins. I still have a somewhat beat up book on dolphins with excellent photos that my uncle Gerard got for me through the book business he used to run. My parents took me to sea world a few times where I one got to feed one during a performance and pet a different one in a tank, but this was a whole different experience.

The Dolphins I met this day were not trained, they were not caged, and they were not being lured with food. They were totally wild. Keeping this in mind we were instructed not to touch them and to not think of them as our entertainment but instead to think of ourselves as their entertainment. We were encouraged to make noise and to dive down a bit in hopes of engaging their interest.

(A Dusky nearly brushing up against me)
The tour works like this, two boats get loaded up with ten swimmers and groups of other people who are just going to watch from the deck. Meanwhile spotters locate the pod of dolphins as they are heading to the feeding grounds. The boat pulls up ahead of the pod and then they just drop the swimmers in the water. The Dusky Dolphins, which is the local species don't find us threatening so the just swim right around us. Hopefully you get a few to check you out before they all pass by. Once they move on we get back in the boat and repeat the process a few times.

The first few moments as we confronted the pod were stunning. As boat came to a stop we were sitting on the back launch pad and we could really see the size of the pod for the first time. When I think of a pod of dolphins or other sea mammals I tend to think of not much more than ten. This single pod consists of over one hundred Duskys. The effect of seeing that many large animals stampeding straight at you is indescribable. Then we jumped in.

(a fellow swimmer getting back in the boat)
I flattened out my body and dipped my besnorkeled head in. Instantly I saw a Dusky less than three feet below me passing in parallel. Below him were two more moving in layers. I forgot myself and said "wow" taking in a mouthful of sea water. I think I wasn't the only one to make that mistake.

(Gliding)
They were everywhere. This was one of the two big reasons I had bought a diving shell for my camera. I didn't want to get so preoccupied taking pictures that I missed the moment itself so I just fired away and hope for the best. Soon enough they had passed us by so we got called back onto the boat and we took off trying to get ahead of the pod again.
(I feel so pretty in this outfit)
We repeated this process four times and I think we spent 45 minutes in the water all together. Between swims we got to ride sitting on the rear step of the boat.

(just a portion of the pod, look closely at the top end)
On our fourth run I managed to finally get enough interest from a Dusky that he circled me a couple of times before moving on, which is considered a real coup.

(baby seal)

After that we caught our breath for a bit while we watched from the deck. On the way back into shore we passed the seals we'd seen from the coast highway.


(our twin tour boat)
I was riding high after that so I enjoyed a stroll through town back to the hostel with Rema and Chris, two people I met on the bus into town. There was a park lined with archways made of sperm whale jaw bones (left over from Kaikoura's now illegal whaling days) and we stopped in a local greasy spoon for a much needed late lunch after all that swimming in high waves.
(Sperm Whale jaw bones lining the park path ... ok, it's weird)
There also seemed to be a strange conflagration of events going on in Kaikoura that day. Firstly I ran into Dermot Canterbury as I checked in for my Dolphin swim. He had been the kayaking partner that I had gone into the drink with in Cathedral Cove at the start of my trip. After that it seemed to be Canadian day in Kaikoura with a special concentration on Ontario. Most of my time here I had been a minority surrounded by European tourists. The few Canadian I had met were mainly from the west coast. This day however the girl that checked me in for the Dolphin tour had gone to U of T for school. one of the guides on the boat was born in Windsor and had done some primary school in Scarborough. Rema and another guy on my bus Brian were both Torontonians, although Rema was living out west now. Back at the hostel we bumped into Trish from Alberta and Keith a Torontonian living in Sydney. Finally we had all the others nationalities surrounded!

(Barry Sanders, abusing art around the world)
This made for a tremendous night. The Hostel had a huge pool and fantastic Thai restaurant out back where we congregated for a dinner. Franci who I had hiked the base of Franz Josef with was also there. We had been traveling in parallel on and off since then and I was glad to be seeing her one last time. She was right up there amongst my favorite travel companions. We picked up an Irish guy named Dermot (not the one from kayaking) and we ended the night in the town pub.

(THE CANADIANS: Brian, Keith, Rema, Trish and Me)
Maybe it was just the high from the Dolphin swim but of all the little towns I had seen in New Zealand, Kaioura had been my favorite. I wished I could spend an extra night because it was a beautiful place and despite having a couple more days in Christchurch ahead of me, I had already been through there. I felt like Kaikoura was the final chapter of my Journey through New Zealand ... and it was perfect.

The Antarctic Centre

Christchurch sits on the South Island's upper east coast. Beside the airport, along the city's outer rim you'll find The Antarctic Centre. An educational/entertainment attraction based on the fact the Christchurch Airport acts as the launch point for missions to the frozen continent.

One of the airport landing strips points straight south and there is literally nothing but ocean between the end of the runway and the Antarctic coast. Flights to the research stations have to get constant weather updates because fuel limits create a point of no return.

The United States Antarctic Program uses a Hercules heavy cargo plane. A plane of such gross tonnage that once it lands it is on a strict 8 hour turnaround clock. If it doesn't take off again by then it will sink to deeply into the ice to get it rolling again.

We stopped in on our way into the city and I figured while I was there I would due the full package. So I bought the admission that included aHagglund ride as well as entrance to the indoor exhibits. A Hagglund is the vehicle they use to get around in the South Pole. It looks like two lunch boxes on tank treads connected by a rail car joint. It's not an impressive sight, nor is the gravel track out back where the ride it around. Your first impression is that this pretty much is a kiddie ride. But then they put theHagglund through it's paces and you know why this is the machine they use in the harshest climate on earth.

A Hagglund can be immersed 3/4 into water, can be tipped more than 30º backward, forward or sideways without rolling over or losing it's grip on shifting materials like loose snow, ice or gravel, and it can cross a gap of about 3 feet. The ride is a little rough but a lot of fun.

Inside there were many informative displays very reminiscent of Toronto's own Science Centre dealing with the flora, fauna, ecosystems and conditions of the Antarctic. This included a habitat of Blue Penguins, the smallest species of penguin. Even though most of them were adults they all looked and moved like adorable little babies.


There was also an indoor snowstorm where you could get a taste of the South Pole's wind conditions. I quite liked the emergency storm stop button. I want one for home.

On the way out there are plaques for all the signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty that preserves the antarctic as a shared resource for research and prevents and one country from claiming it. Canada joined when I was in high school.

Afterwards we got headed into the city centre. In three days I would be leaving for Australia from Christchurch but before I did I had to make a side trip to Kaikoura. There was one more thing I had to see.