Rachel de Groot's performance for a swimming diploma
Creator(s)
- Mr. Louis de Groot
- Meijer de Groot (Camera Operator)
Biographical History
Meijer de Groot (1897-1944) and his wife Sophia Swaab de Groot (1900-1944) owned a hardware and electrical appliance store on Rijnstraat in the city of Arnhem, The Netherlands. After being warned of a forthcoming round-up of Jews, the de Groot family left their home in Arnhem to go into hiding in November 1942. Louis (b. 1929) and his sister, Rachel (1927-1944), hid in several dozen places throughout the Netherlands. Rachel eventually joined her parents at their hiding place in Amsterdam, while Louis made it to the home of Dirk and Ann Onderweegs in Lemmer in January 1944. Rachel and her parents were denounced on April 8, 1944, arrested by a Dutch policeman who was a childhood friend of Meijer's, and sent first to Westerbork and then to Auschwitz where they perished. Louis stayed with the Onderweegs until August 1946 when he entered the Jewish Boys Orphanage in Amsterdam. He fought for Israel in 1948, briefly returned to Holland, and emigrated to the United States in 1950, where he married and had two sons.
Scope and Content
In order to earn a swimming diploma, children were required to swim in clothes other than a bathing suit. This practice became a performance followed by the participants swimming in their fancy outfits. Meijer de Groot filmed his daughter Rachel dressed as Red Riding Hood, and her friend Nel de Booys, the daughter of the camera shop owner, among other candidates. INTs, actors in costume in a dark setting. They sample cake of some sort held by someone dressed as a nurse. A young girl in a dress acting, shakes hands with another young girl. A group dressed identically in flowing dresses and bonnets dance about.
Note(s)
For more artifacts related to the de Groot family, see USHMM collections with accession numbers 2003.155 and 2009.341
People
- de Groot, Louis.
Subjects
- COSTUMES
- JEWISH LIFE (PRE-WAR)
- NETHERLANDS
- CHILDREN (JEWISH)
Places
- Arnhem, Netherlands
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.