Restrictions
Taking photographs was restricted during the German occupation. Many subjects were considered undesirable by the Nazis. From the autumn of 1944, taking photographs in the street was completely prohibited. Thankfully, all these restrictions didn’t stop a number of photographers recording wartime conditions. Many of the photographs taken by professional photographers became familiar images after the war, but the pictures taken by amateurs generally disappeared into family albums stored away in cupboards. K.F.H. (Karel) Bönnekamp donated his albums - with 197 Amsterdam street scenes during the occupation - to the Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam. This exhibition highlights the most extraordinary photographs in the collection.
Bönnekamp
Karel Bönnekamp (1914-2008) lived in Amsterdam during the war - on Stadionplein in the south of the city until December 1942, when he moved to Hogeweg in the east of Amsterdam.
He married in 1941 and became a father for the first time in 1943. Bönnekamp had a one-man business in office supplies. From 1941 onwards, he was involved in administrative work for the Ordedienst (O.D.), a resistance organisation with many members from a military background. From 1943 onwards, he distributed coupon books and aid payments on behalf of the illegal national organisation set up to help people in hiding, Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers (L.O.).
Photography
Bönnekamp was in the habit of collecting and recording facts. He cycled around Amsterdam every day as part of his resistance activities and took photographs of street scenes that caught his attention. Occasionally, he would make a special trip, as he did following the resistance attack on the municipal registry. He recorded the devastation resulting from that attack from behind the windows of a bar across the street.
Risk
Some photographers took their pictures through a hole in a bag, but Bönnekamp preferred to find a hidden spot and quickly take his pictures. In order to have something in his pocket that resembled a permit, he went to the German Security Service (SD) headquarters in Euterpestraat. On a visitors form he filled in the purpose of his visit: permission to take photographs in the streets. He carried this with him. When he was arrested while taking a photograph in 1943, he was released after simply producing this form.
The photographs
Even during the occupation, Bönnekamp started having his photographs developed and printed by a trusted photographer who also supplied him with film rolls. The negatives were lost after the war. Bönnekamp put his copies in two albums, adding captions to every photograph.
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| Jews being transported by tram to the Muiderpoort train station for deportation to the concentration camps, Wijttenbachstraat, spring 1943. Normally, these transports took place in the evening or at night to draw little attention. |
This exhibition is a production of the Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam. Made possible by a bequest from Mrs. E.E. Brandes - de Lestrieux Hendrichs.
We are grateful for the support of: Mrs. D.A. Bönnekamp, Roel Fokkens, Koen van Torenburg.
A stitch a day... Embroidering in prison 1940-1945
Until May 22, 2012
Thousands of Dutch women were imprisoned during the Second World War: Jewish women, women in the Dutch East Indies, and those arrested who were members of the Resistance. Conditions in prison varied considerably, but whenever they could, these women embroidered.
They would do their utmost to be able to embroider. They stole needles from the guards, ripped off patches from sheets or clothing, and pulled thread out of coloured headscarves. They embroidered for themselves and for one another. It was something to enjoy, it gave them a sense of security and brought colour to their grey existence.
It depended very much upon prison conditions how much they could embroider, or whether they could keep their work. It had to be smuggled out, or else they finished it after the liberation. Little embroidery done by Jewish women was preserved. In the transit camp Westerbork in Drenthe there were several workplaces that used metal and wood, which was used for their own work, but very little textile was available.
Much of the preserved embroidery in this exhibition is by women who ended up in prison or in concentration camps because of their part in the Resistance. Embroidery by women in the Japanese camps in the Dutch East Indies is also shown.
Send a digital image of your embroidery inspired by the exhibition to borduren@verzetsmuseum.org
