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Enschede Overduin’s preacher saved hundreds of Jews from the hands of the Germans during the war years. He never spoke about it himself and also refused any form of recognition. The documentary “Leendert Overduin, the conscience of a city” talks about the pastor’s vast network, thanks to which he managed to save hundreds of Jews from transport to Germany. At least half of the Jews of Enschede were saved in this way. The 1,200 people who helped Overduin survived the war.
Enschedeer Willy Berends made a documentary about it with Cars Bijlstra from Den Ham. Erik Dijkstra is the narrator of the story. The documentary aired on TV Oost last year and has now been viewed around 60,000 times on YouTube. The story has not gone unnoticed in America either.
Berends knew he had a special story to tell. But he could not have imagined in advance that he is so attractive that he fascinates people all over the world. The Dutch version of the film ended up in Palo Alto, California via a family member of someone rescued by Overduin. In Palo Alto, Enschede’s partner city, it was decided to show the documentary during the annual Holocaust commemoration on April 8. After that, the film can be viewed by all Jewish communities in the United States and Canada.
“Subtitles don’t work in America, so we had to dub the whole movie,” says Herbert Zwartz behind a studio microphone in Amsterdam. He recorded the closing poem there today. “In English. I don’t have a lot of problems with that, because I lived in America for a year and a half,” Zwartz said.
Stemactors
American dubbers were brought in to dub the documentary. “I was skeptical about it at first,” says documentary filmmaker Willy Berends. “I had such a telling idea about it. But that skepticism is gone when I see how it all sounds. Everyone has their own American voice, which is also very similar to the original voices.”
Will the film gain attention in America as well? “We’ll see,” Berends said with a smile. “In English, it’s a story that hangs a bit above the war in the person of Overduin. It’s also a story of hope and not just misery.”
The documentary ‘The conscience of a city’
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