The Past That LivesA film by Philo Bregstein
Jacob Presser, the great Dutch historian, was born at the end of the nineteenth century in the heart of Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter. In THE PAST THAT LIVES, Presser’s intensely personal narrative is embedded in the tremendous upheavals of European history in the first half of the twentieth century: the growth of "that life-giving" socialist ideology and the optimism it inspired; the terror of Hitler’s rise to power ("the victory of that abyss"); and the devastation of Amsterdam’s 100,000 Jews.
With wit and sadness, Presser tells of his childhood in the ghetto, as the son of a poor diamond worker; his fascination with socialism, Germany, and the Renaissance; and his dreamy marriage even as the world was rapidly changing around him. Filmmaker Philo Bregstein interweaves this account with extensive Dutch and German archival still photography and film, to create a moving portrait to pre-war Amsterdam and its transformations.
The persecution of Jews in Holland intensified; Presser’s students and eventually his wife were taken from him, and he went underground. In the post-war return to "normalcy," Presser attempted to make sense of his experiences by interviewing countless survivors of the Dutch holocaust and writing his masterpiece, ASHES IN THE WIND: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DUTCH JEWRY.
In May, 1970, one week before this film was first released on Dutch television, Jacob Presser died.
65 minutes black and white
Distribution of 'The past that lives':
National Centre for Jewish Film
Brandeis University, lown 102, MS053
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
7816 8900 or 781 899 7044
rivo@brandeis.edu
lisarivo@brandeis.edu
www.jewishfilm.org
Brandeis University, lown 102, MS053
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
7816 8900 or 781 899 7044
rivo@brandeis.edu
lisarivo@brandeis.edu
www.jewishfilm.org
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The Past That Lives (“Dingen Die Niet Voorbij Gaan”). A personal history from 1900 to the present narrated by Prof. Jacques Presser
A film by Philo Bregstein
- Assistant and editor: Jan Dop
- Camera: Anton Haakman
- Sound: Tom Tholen
- English voice: Ton van Duinhoven
- Length: 720 m / 65 min
- 16 mm black and white 1970
Music:
| Schubert | Fantasy in F minor for piano duet opus 103 D 930 Trio I opus 99 in B Minor |
| Mozart Shostakovitch Pierre Schaeffer | Pianosonata for two players, KV 521 Pianoconcerto nr. 13 C, KV 415 Symphony nr. 12, “1917” “Etude aux chemins de fer” |
Broadcasted twice by Dutch Television (VARA), on May 9th 1970 and on October 19th 1970.
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Philo Bregstein was born in 1932 in Amsterdam. He studied civil law at the University Amsterdam and filmdirecting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome.
He is author of several novels: 'Om de tijd te doden' (To Kill Time) 1967 , 'Persoonsbewijs' (Proof of Identity) 1973, 'Reisverslag van een Vliegende Hollander' (Diary of a Flying Dutchman) 1980/1997, 'Het Sabbatjaar' (TheSabbatical) 2004.
Non fiction: 'Terug naar Litouwen, sporen van een joodse familie' (Back to Lithuania, traces of a Jewish family), 1995
Theatre: 'Willem Mengelberg tussen licht en donker', (Willem Mengelberg between light and dark), co-author with Martin van Amerongen, 2001
Interviewbooks: 'Gesprekken met Jacques Presser' (conversations with Jacques Presser) 1972. 'Herinnering aan Joods Amsterdam' (Remembering Jewish Amsterdam), co-author with Salvador Bloemgarten, 1978. Published in English under the title 'Remembering Jewish Amsterdam', Holmes & Meier, New York, 2004.
Essays: 'Over smaak valt best te twisten' (you can very well discuss taste) 1991. 'Het kromme kan toch niet recht zijn' (you can not change what is crooked into what is right) 1996, and 'Antisemitisme in zijn hedendaagse variaties', 2007.
Films:
'The Compromise'. Golden Dove best first featurefilm Venice Film Festival, 1968.
'The Past that Lives'. Portrait of Dutch historian Jacques Presser, author of The destruction of Dutch Jewry, 1970
'Otto Klemperer’s long journey through his times', 1973-1984
'Otto Klemperer, rehearsals and concert, 1971". 1974
'In search of Jewish Amsterdam', 1975
'Ernst Schaüblin, Boer en Schilder' (Farmer and painter). Portrait of the Swiss painter Ernst Schaüblin, 1976
'Dromen van leven' (Dreams out of life). Portrait of Dutch writer Arthur van Schendel. 1977
'Jean Rouch and his camera in the heart of Africa'. Portrait of French filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch, 1978.
'Whoever says the truth shall die. Portrait of Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1981.
'Days of Memory'. Co-author with Lithuanian filmmaker Saulius Berzinis. Film made on the occasion of The Days of Memory, the first public discussion in 1993 in independent Lithuania about the history and the annihilation of the Lithuanian Jews, 2000
The National Center for Jewish Film (Brandeis University) distributes in the U.S.A.:
'The Past that lives'.
'In search of Jewish Amsterdam'.
'Days of Memory'.
Facets Multimedia (Chicago) distributes in the U.S.A.:
'Otto Klemperer’s long journey through his times'.
'Whoever says the truth shall die'.
Documentary Educational Resources, D.E.R. (Watertown, MA) distributes in the U.S.A:
'Jean Rouch and his camera in the heart of Africa'.
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Well, I was born before 1900 -- I am of the last century, right?
-- in the heart of the Jewish quarter, the Waterlooplein.
I was born in the family of a diamond worker, which at that time was strongly under the influence -- at least my father was -- of the rising socialist movement. My father was a diamond fitter, and his job was one of those that's been mechanized away. So my father is a very good example of the process which, of course, has been repeated million-fold, of the workman who does something with his hands but is then replaced by a machine.
My father was often without a job, even at that time. Anyway, those were the first years in that ghetto. I use the word ghetto and we all realize, of course, that one can talk three hundred hours about whether it was or wasn't a ghetto. I mean, as far as I can see, the whole world is still crawling with ghettoes…
We lived there in the poorest part of it, we were actually very poor. We had a colourful Jewish family… an uncle who had a very difficult time selling the most incredible sour pickles on the market, making a noise that was eh….
I just can 't reproduce it... My own grandfather, who also stood on the market, selling stoves which he continuously painted over or did something or other to them… I never knew how these things could possibly have burnt, for it seems to me that the paint must have melted away… who really spoilt us children…
It was an assimilated Jewish family. One did not seem to do anything especially Jewish anymore, but yet one did, without directly understanding it, or realizing it… Friday night was a special night, wasn't it? Friday night was the evening of the cloth, the white table cloth…
And my mother… in my mother survived certain living sentiments which I later, only as an adult, was surprised to recognize in her. Let me give an example of that surprise… My mother always had the feeling that we, Jews, would have to leave here someday.
In Jewish families one cannot speak of a saint, but one can easily say that we had a sort of household god, just like most other families, and ours was Henri Polak. I believe that one has to realize that this Henri Polak, the Rabbi of the diamond workers, as someone once called him, was a personality who represented in himself an entire development, you see, the whole development of rising socialism that my father experienced at first hand through the labour union. Something was happening to those people, those outcasts of the world who indeed sang the International, full ofenthusiasm, which I must have heard when I was still a child. Those people woke up, they started to read: Heyermans, Multatuli. Multatuli, of course, was truly also a little bit of an idol for socialist families…
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The past that lives – A Personal History from 1900 to the present, narrated by Prof. Jacques Presser. (1970 Dutch T.V length 60 min)
Director Philo Bergstein
The past lives within us. Often we struggle with it for years. Sometimes it seems to be really gone, but that is an illusion. Like a time bomb the past suddenly explodes after twenty, thirty years. That is what is still today happening with the events of the world war 1940 -1945.To think about such things of the past is a relief for a democratic society. It recalls that, which has been pushed aside, which has been bewing and bugging us and is conditioning our life today without being free. We begin to realize what determines our actions and thoughts and perhaps we succeed then in seeing more clearly and freely what road we must take.
Jacques Presser, important Dutch historian, wrote his book “ Ashes in the Wind, the destruction of the Dutch Jewry” about one of the most oppressing events of the past in this century. He was so personally involved, so sharp analyzing, that twenty years after the war his book was a violent shock for countless people in the Netherlands. His book is published in English translation in the USA.
In this film, the man who wrote this book tells the story of his life. It is not so much a portrait of Presser, but an attempt to express quite frankly within the frame of his life story, his subjective vision on life by means of pictures accompanied by his voice.
Jacques Presser was an Amsterdam son of a Jewish diamond worker. He came out of a poor Jewish “ghetto” in Amsterdam, was enraptured by the rising socialism in Holland, which gave him the opportunity to become a history teacher and later professor in history. He loved German culture and felt himself in Holland completely assimilated as a Dutchman in Dutch society, significant for the unique situation of the Dutch Jews who lived in a very strong integration and solidarity with the Dutch. Then Presser experienced the war, the extermination of 100.000 Amsterdam Jews, lost his wife in an extermination camp and struggled with that experience the rest of his life.
We should listen to this man who has worked on the past so well. He wrote 15 years on his book Ashes in the Wind. My film became pressers Testament: he died a week before the film was shown on Dutch TV on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland, May 1970.
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