Willy Lindwer (born Wolf Lindwer, 18 March 1946) is a Dutch documentary film producer, director, photographer and author.

Biography

Willy Lindwer was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, Netherlands, where he studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. When Lindwer finished his study, he worked for several Dutch Public TV stations. In 1985 he established his own company, AVA-Productions, in which he has made most of his films. He is best known for his films on the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, Israel and the Middle East, Judaism and Christianity, but has experience in a wide area of documentary filmmaking. In 1988 he won the

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sci ...

for his film ''

The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank ''Laatste Zeven Maanden van Anne Frank'' (English title: ''The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank'') is a 1988 Dutch television documentary directed by Willy Lindwer about the last seven months in the life of diarist Anne Frank. Seven different wome ...

''. This film contains the testimonies of seven women who were witness to the last months of

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

's life in the

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

, including

Hannah Pick-Goslar Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar (born Hanna Elisabeth Goslar; 12 November 1928 – 28 October 2022) was a German-born Israeli nurse and Holocaust survivor best known for her close friendship with writer Anne Frank. The girls attended the 6th Monte ...

(Hanneli), a former neighbor of the Franks;

Bloeme Evers-Emden Bloeme Evers-Emden (; 26 July 1926 – 18 July 2016) was a Dutch Jewish lecturer and child psychologist who extensively researched the phenomenon of "hidden children" during World War II and wrote four books on the subject in the 1990s. Her i ...

, a classmate of

Margot Margot (; ) is a feminine French given name, a variant of Marguerite. It is also occasionally a surname. Persons named Margot include the following: People with the given name Margot * Margot Asquith, countess of Oxford and Asquith * Marguerite ...

; and Janny Brilleslijper who buried her in

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

. On 29 April 2010 he was bestowed with the Dutch order Officer in the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has ...

by Her Majesty the

Queen of the Netherlands The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

in recognition of his film-work for the Netherlands. Willy Lindwer has also published several books, some of which are based on the films he has made. His most famous work as an author is also ''The Last Seven Months of

'', translated into English by Alison Meersschaert. Willy Lindwer has been a documentary filmmaker, producer and scriptwriter since graduating the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam in 1971. For many years he was on the program staff of Dutch Public TV. He founded his company AVA Productions in 1985 in the Netherlands. Currently, he also heads an Israeli corporation, Terra Film Productions in Jerusalem. His companies are dedicated to the development and production of international documentaries and co-productions for television high quality. Willy Lindwer's documentaries are distributed worldwide, including Europe and the US. Willy Lindwer was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1946. His parents fled anti-Semitic

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in the 1930s and settled in Amsterdam. They were among the 10% of Jews in the Netherlands who survived the

. Driven by a passion for oral history and his interest in exploring human hardships, he has travelled extensively around the globe, producing highly acclaimed series of documentaries about Europe, Africa and the Far East. Willy Lindwer's major international breakthrough came in 1988, when he was awarded the highest TV award, the International Emmy Award for his documentary ''The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank''. In 1993 he won 'the Dutch State Award for Filmmaking, the Grand Prix of the Dutch Film Industry' in the category 'best documentary' for another major Holocaust documentary: ''Child in Two Worlds'', the story of Jewish war orphans. Willy Lindwer has earned worldwide recognition with his series of documentaries about the Holocaust, Israel, the Middle East and the Arts. Willy Lindwer also produced the highly acclaimed documentary, ''The Lonely Struggle:

Marek Edelman Marek Edelman ( yi, מאַרעק עדעלמאַן, born either 1919 in Homel or 1922 in Warsaw – October 2, 2009 in Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the ...

, Last Hero of the 1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...

''. According to the many flattering press reviews and reactions, the Dutch audience was equally impressed by his 1990 film and book ''Camp of Hope and Despair, Witnesses of Westerbork, 1939-1945''. Willy Lindwer's film ''

Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration ...

: Freedom is Not a Gift from Heaven'' was the Dutch Nominee for the International Emmy Award for Best Documentary, 1994. And a one-hour documentary about the life of

Teddy Kollek Theodor "Teddy" Kollek ( he, טדי קולק; 27 May 1911 – 2 January 2007) was an Israeli politician who served as the mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 19 ...

. His feature-length film ''

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...

: Warrior-Peacemaker'', was in 1998 awarded the 'Finalist Prize' at the New York Film and Television Festival. His film ''Goodbye, Holland'' (2004) was shown in three successive years on Israeli TV.

Filmography

Some titles of his films include: * The Train Journey, the miraculous escape of Hungarian-Dutch Jews in 1943 (2018) * Rebellious City, Amsterdam in the 19-sixties and the Provo movement (2015) * Lonely but not alone The story of a rebellion, Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo (2015) * Manja, a life behind invisible bars (2013) * Remembering a Murdered Child (2012) * ''Anna’s Silent Struggle'' (2009) * ''Mr. Israel, The Shimon Peres Story'' (2008) * ''Africa goes Digital'' The building of an information society (2005) * ''

Goodbye Holland ''Goodbye Holland'' is a 2004 documentary about the extermination of Dutch Jews during World War II. The film debunks the accepted notion that the Dutch were 'good' during the war, exposing how Dutch police and civil servants helped the German ...

'' (2004) * ''The Temple Mount is Mine, two-part documentary'' (2003) * ''Messengers Without an Audience'', with Jan Karski (2002) * Cameroon: Working on Credit (2002) * ''D’vekut: Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism in Israel, a Personal Journey'' (2000) * ''Stuart Eizentat: The Nazi Gold Reports'' (1998) * ''Yitzhak Rabin: Warrior-Peacemaker'' (1998) * ''The Return, three-part series about 100 Years Zionism and 50 years Israel'' (1998) * ''Jerusalem: Between Heaven and Earth'', a three-part series (1995) * ''The Fatal Dilemma, The Jewish Council of Amsterdam'' (1995) * ''Simon Wiesenthal: Freedom is Not a Gift from Heaven'' (1994) * ''Teddy Kollek: From Vienna to Jerusalem'' (1993) * ''Child in Two Worlds'' (1993) Golden Calf Best Dutch Documentary * ''Return to my Shtetl Delatyn'', about Willy Lindwer's father Berl Nuchim (1992) * ''The Wannsee Conference'' (1992) * ''Married with a Star, a Jewish Wedding in Amsterdam in 1942'' (1991) * ''Westerbork: Camp of Hope and Despair'' (1990) * The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank (1988) International Emmy Award * Marek Edelman, Last Hero of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1987) * The Pill Jungle (1985) the essential drugs list for health care * House Without Foundation, with James Mason, about Afghan refugees (1984) * Between Kabary and Satellite, Communication in Madagascar (1984) * The Breaking Chain, Environment in Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast (1983) * I am Their Eye, Education in Botswana, Kalahari dessert, Okavango Delta (1981) * Food for the Future, The Turkana and Boran tribes in Kenya (1980) * Live-Life, Three Choreographers and a Ballet - Dutch National Ballet (1979) * Amsterdam 700 Years, (1975) * Dutch Police during the occupation of The Netherlands (1969/1970)

References

External links

The Willy Lindwer Film & Video Collection (official site)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindwer, Willy 1946 births Living people Writers from Amsterdam Dutch documentary filmmakers Dutch film directors Dutch film producers Dutch Jews Dutch male writers International Emmy Award winners Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau Golden Calf winners