Legacy
After the war, the fragment of seven seconds in Breslauer's movie was used in many documentaries. The image of the anonymous young girl staring out of the wagon full of fear and about to be transported to Auschwitz became an icon of the Holocaust. Until 1994, she was only known as "the girl with the headdress". It was assumed she was Jewish, as for many years there was little attention paid to the genocide of the 500,000 to 1,500,000 Romanies that were murdered by the Germans in the Porajmos throughout Europe.
In December 1992, Dutch journalist Aad Wagenaar started research to identify her. By following the number on the outside of the wagon, number 10, 16 or 18; the description of the wagon; and the identity of a single suitcase that appears in the shot, he quickly discovered that the transport took place on May 19, 1944. The transport turned out to be a mixed transport of Dutch Romanies and Jews. On February 7, 1994, at a trailer camp in Spijkenisse, Crasa Wagner revealed the name of Settela Steinbach.
The quest for Settela Steinbach's identity was documented in Cherry Duyns' documentary Settela, gezicht van het verleden (1994) (Settela, Face of the Past). Wagenaar published his research in the book Settela; het meisje heeft haar naam terug (ISBN 90-295-5612-9) (Settela: The Girl Who Got Her Name Back).
Read more about this topic: Settela Steinbach
Famous quotes containing the word legacy:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)